


The Sort that was Never Finished (i.e. Ideas unspent)

by Pleasedial123



Category: Naruto
Genre: a variety of ideas, because writing is hard and I run out of time and inspiration, but I don't want to delete them so here they be, mainly Sakura centric, so many good ideas tossed in the trash, so many weird things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-01-08 03:01:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 44,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21228701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pleasedial123/pseuds/Pleasedial123
Summary: "An idea is usually generated with intent, but can also be created unintentionally."A pitfall filled with unfinished business, half-started thoughts, and things I wish I could read without having to write them.Naruto thoughts.





	1. Crazier than a bag of Cats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little idea about how out-of-his-fucking-mind Sasuke is after the massacre. After all, he lost all he loved, he lost himself, and the powers that be patted him on the head and said 'too bad'.

The thing about Uchiha Sasuke, is that he is complicated. Well, most people are, but perhaps not in the same way as Sasuke.

Quite a few people would say he wasn’t complex; he was just crazier than a bag of cats. At twelve. 

But the thing is, while a lot of people watch him like a ticking time bomb, waiting for him to let that crazy out messily and violently, very very few of them seem to know why he is as he is.

You see, once upon a time, Uchiha Sasuke was a very happy, well-adjusted child. For being born to a ninja family, in a very traditional clan, in the main line, Uchiha Sasuke was a very normal child. He loved his family, he had friends, he played games, had a favorite food. Anyone who saw him at eight years old would not recognize him at twelve. 

But that’s what happens when you experience trauma. 

For Sasuke had loved one person above any and all, even his own parents; his brother. He had adored his elder brother who always has a kind word, a soft smile, a moment of time. In a family that was busy, in a family that was held to a high public standard, smiles and soft hugs weren’t always normal. But Sasuke’s brother had made sure he grew up loved and made sure he knew it. 

Sasuke had loved him unguardedly and with his whole heart. 

And then Itachi had broken that poor little heart. 

Itachi had murdered everyone with even the faintest trace of Uchiha blood, down to the youngest infant, except for Sasuke. He’d murdered them with dead eyes and a cold sword and made Sasuke watch as he beheaded their parents. And then he’d taken his poor little brother and made him relive it over and over and over and over again for 72 hours. 

See the thing was, people assumed the trauma was from seeing the Uchiha die, in seeing his family murdered. But in reality, it not the murders, as horrible as they were, it was _who_ did them. If it had been done by any other hand Sasuke would have been hurt, would have suffered, but he would not have been shattered. 

Sasuke loved his older brother irrevocably and utterly, even when he was murdering everyone he had ever known. But when Itachi had left him alive, left him with crushing words of ‘weak’, something inside of Sasuke cracked. Because Itachi’s was the only opinion that had ever really mattered to Sasuke.

All children need something to measure themselves against, something to compare themselves with. They need another person to judge their own actions as good or bad, right or wrong. And with the crime committed, Itachi spit in Sasuke’s face and told him he was not good enough. 

To a child who had strived for a soft smile, a word of praise, a hug. To a child who had strived for recognition from one person, being told he was so worthless he was not worth of even death was something that tore. Sasuke was told he was nothing, less than, that there he was less than human. Worth less than even a babe who could do naught but cry. 

In that moment he had his psyche shattered, his sense of self destroyed, and his sense of worth obliterated. 

So of course Sasuke was crazy. In that moment he couldn’t even consider himself human. 

Perhaps he could have been fixed, could have been saved, but the actions of a few well-meaning people ruined that nearly days after the attack. Those who could have stopped it, unknown to Sasuke, had been the behind the orders that led to this moment.

So they kept Sasuke in the hospital until he was physically fine. They gave him a psychiatric assessment, deemed him broken, but in a ninja village that was normal and not something they cared to put much effort into fixing. So they patted him on the head, told him they were sorry, and put him right back in the center of the murder scene thinking maybe being at home would help.

Oh they had cleaned out the bodies and the scrubbed off the blood, but they hadn’t gotten rid of everything that held memory. They had not taken any of Itachi’s things. They had left all the reminders. 

And so, Uchiha Sasuke, utterly alone, sat in his house rocking back and forth and gibbered his way further and further into insanity. 

When someone finally came by to force him to go back to the academy, they thought the strong arm approach would be best and simply ordered him to do so. Sasuke was far enough gone to obey, but it simply enforced the madness. It enforced the idea that Sasuke did not matter. He had was not allowed time to process or grieve simply told to pick himself up and obey.

So Sasuke went back to the academy a month after the massacre. And what he found were children who could not grasp grief, could not grasp the magnitude of destruction to him, could not grasp madness. They bleated empty platitudes that hit him like lashes and a day later it was like nothing in the world had changed. They further enforced the idea that Sasuke was worthless, not even worth grief or care. 

Oh there were the odd people who still gave him pitying looks and soft words, but they did nothing else. And actions speak louder than words. So Sasuke started to change. Of course the madness had changed him immediately, but there had still been traces of the old Sasuke if anyone had cared to pick of the pieces and glue them back together. 

Instead no one did and Sasuke was left to do it himself. But trembling hands and tear filled eyes and screams ringing in your ears did very little to help with such a careful process. When no one acknowledged the changes or his efforts he simply accepted that no one cared and started to work that in.

So Sasuke did what he could, human instincts to survive pushing him on, and became a dark quiet child. He did his best at school, worked hard because some instinct pushed him to try and prove himself, to reach desperately for someone to acknowledge that he was a person. He simply got remarks about how it was expected of an Uchiha to be the best. This did nothing to help because now they were talking of his family again, pushing every one of his individual successes onto his dead family as if Sasuke had not worked hard for them on his own. Sasuke kept hearing how they glanced over him as a person to talk of his family, as if he was not worth the mention. 

The girls around him swooned and cooed and called him cute and mysterious and cool and Sasuke was screaming inside of his head. They talked about how handsome he was and Sasuke realized they wanted nothing but what he appeared to be. They did not care for Sasuke, they cared for his name, for his dead family, and for his pretty face. They cared nothing for the small boy in his head screaming and screaming and screaming. 

So Sasuke broke, little by little over the years, until every time he tried to put himself together he crumbled like a house of cards.

Upper level shinobi would pass him with careful wary eyes and the civilians treated him like a shadow of his dead family and Sasuke sunk deeper and deeper into the madness. And all people said was that was expected. That Sasuke was fated for it. 

Uchiha Sasuke merely gibbered. He had lost his sense of self so long ago that the idea of fighting what people said he _was_, was impossible. 

It’s no wonder he is crazier than a bag of cats.


	2. I Swooned Into Your arms and then Ravished you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura is overworked and her unwitting hero arrives in the light of a convenience store carrying lunch to sweep her off her feet and into his bed. He protests at first but Sakura thinks he quite likes her in his bed.

The losses Konoha had suffered during the war had hit the hospital quite hard, taking away from their already low number of medics. The Peace that had come after had also lulled the village into a calmer state and academy enrollment dropped. And with Peace also came the idea that there was no need to just throw half trained medics into the hospital. With that in mind Tsunade had started to implement higher standards and more classes for aspiring medics. While this was fantastic for their skills, it also drew potential medics into more schooling. Older nurses and doctors were also starting to enroll in these classes to learn more or renew their teachings. 

All of this together meant that the hospital was quite understaffed. Sakura as a result, suffered long shifts.

Sakura didn’t truly mind. It was good to work hard, to feel needed and accomplished. But most weeks she left the hospital dead on her feet. She either left due to the fact she was depleted of chakra from some intense operation, or more often, left because she was starting to become a danger to her patients with how tired she was. With how understaffed they were it was no unusual for her not to leave the hospital at all during her work week. She’d often take naps in unoccupied offices, never getting quite enough rest before she was being paged again.

And as said, she didn’t truly mind. What she did mind though, was the fact that when she was finally kicked out of the hospital and told to go rest, she had to drag herself the half an hour long walk home. 

The hospital was in an older area of town and as such most of the homes were owned by families that had been there for more than a generation. The few newer apartments tucked in were considered desirable for the quiet family area. So Sakura had never been able to find an affordable place close to the hospital. When she was well rested it wasn’t a big deal. She could take to the roof tops and be home in under ten minutes. But on days when she was exhausted she found herself with a daunting half hour walk. 

Sakura was a bit embarrassed to admit she hadn’t always made it home on her own in this state. Usually a patrol found her if it was late at night, or more often Naruto who was the one who often dragged her out of the hospital himself. One time Mitarashi Anko of all people had found her after she had collapsed half way home and carried her the rest of the way. She’d made sure to pay the kunoichi back with a lot of dango. 

Sakura blinked her own thoughts away. It was no use to keep thinking of why she was dragging herself inch by inch home. What she should be doing is making sure her feet moved. Because currently they weren’t.

A passing teenager looked at her concernedly but didn’t stop to see if she needed help. Civilians often didn’t bother the ninja simply out of awkwardness. Also, Sakura was realizing she had forgotten to change. She was still wearing her doctor’s coat and a stethoscope. She knew she had forgotten to do something. 

Sakura blinked rapidly to try and wake herself up and leaned against the closest surface. The darkness outside wasn’t helping. If it had been the middle of the day and bright she might have been kept awake simply by the blinding light. As it was it must be after midnight because it was quite dark and the streets were empty. The only light came from the small convenience store before her. She debated going in for coffee. But no, she wanted to get home. 

“Home is where the heart is,” Sakura told the wall she found herself leaning. “So that means it’s in your chest.”

The wall she was leaning against snorted.

“Are you okay Haruno?”

She stared at the talking wall. 

“Walls don’t talk,” she told it sternly. “I may be sleep deprived but even I know that.”

“Do you need to go to the hospital?” the wall asked, voice calm. 

“Not allowed in there. They kicked me out,” she told the wall seriously.

She finally looked up and found herself looking into the face of a man. A familiar man. One whose name she couldn’t quite grasp at the moment.

“Oh. You’re not a wall,” she noted.

He raised a brow as if amused and she hesitantly took her hands off his chest. Really, he shouldn’t be so sturdy if he wasn’t a wall. 

“Do you need help finding your way home?” the Not-Wall asked, eyeing her.

“No. I know where the way is,” she shook her head. 

He chuckled lowly and she looked down at the bag in his hand crinkled as he shifted. 

“Do you have coffee?” she asked seriously.

“I think you need sleep more than coffee.”

“I need both,” she said decisively. “But I think you are a bit right. I’m just gonna go to sleep now.”

Then she was tilting to the side and crumpling, out before she even hit the ground. 

.--.

Sakura awoke faintly due to the pressing need to use the washroom and not out of any sense of feeling rested. She slid out of the bed, dropping silently to the floor and headed for the bathroom. Then she promptly ran into a wall. She finally cracked her eyes open, fighting the gunk and the gritty exhaustion, to peer in the darkened room. She turned towards the bathroom and ran into a dresser.

“Who put a dresser in my room?” she mumbled, confused.

She had no energy to think on it though, and blindly found the bathroom. After she had finished and had also gulped down some water from the tap she staggered back into the bedroom. 

“Awake already Haruno?” someone asked.

“No,” Sakura answered, mostly truthfully as she fell back into the bed. 

She limply rolled under the covers and was already half asleep when the sigh echoed followed by the rustling clothes. A hand soon rested against her back, insistent.

“Too tired. Sex later,” She mumbled as she slapped lazily at the hand.

A snort was her reply.

“I need to sleep too Haruno and this is my bed. Move over.”

The hand nudged her again, making her roll closer to the wall. The mattress dipped and someone joined her under the covers. Almost immediately she rolled into him. 

“You made the mattress not flat,” She murmured already drifting off again.

Another snort was the reply and Sakura just curled into the warmth of the body beside her was she finally fully succumbed to sleep. 

.--.

Sakura sat up in the bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and trying to crack the kink in her back. Despite the heavy curtains covering the window, sunlight seeped around the edges, casting a faint light across the room. Sakura popped her spine and yawned again. She considered laying back down but knew she wouldn’t get any more real sleep. It would be that sort of hazy drifting that was really just making you overtired and wasted time. 

But the bed was so warm and soft. Sakura laid back down and curled in the blankets, giving herself a few minutes of comfort as she enjoyed the silence. 

“If you are actually awake, there is food. Or you can use the shower,” a low voice called from through a half closed doorway.

Sakura debated for a moment with herself, then slipped from the bed and padded to the bathroom. A shower sounded like the best option. It would wash away the last vestiges of sleep and the past few days in the hospital. Sakura actually felt the first feeling of embarrassment that she hadn’t had a chance to at least wipe off before crashing in someone’s bed. 

When she stepped out of the shower she tugged on the large shirt she had been wearing previously. She eyed the basic blue t-shirt that definitely wasn’t her and which she had no memory of putting on. Then she shrugged and then peeked in the room to find her clothes tossed in a corner. She left the rumpled dirty clothes and headed out of the bedroom. She did indeed find food waiting on the table and wasted no time in falling upon it. 

“Thanks,” Sakura said around a mouthful. “For you know, not leaving me on the ground when I collapsed.”

“You’re welcome. It would have been more useful if you could have told me your address before you collapsed.”

“It would have been even more convenient if I had been able to make it home. But we all have to accept sometimes shit happens,” she shrugged. “Also, thanks for letting me crash in your bed. You could have contacted someone to come take me home.”

“I didn’t need it for the first bit, and then it was just as easy to let you stay then track someone down.”

“How long was I out?”

“Close the 16 hours. I had just bought lunch when you collapsed on me so I left you to sleep while I returned to work.”

“Lunch? In the middle of the night?”

“You of all people should understand a shinobi schedule.”

“Fair.” 

She let the conversation drop and finished up the food. By the time she had finished, the combination of sleep, shower, and food had her feeling like a real rested human being. She reluctantly returned to the room to pull on her dirty pants and collect her things.

“Mind if I borrow the shirt?” she asked.

“That’s fine.”

“Awesome. I’ll return it after I do laundry,” she said, tugging her shoes on, “Come here.”

He met her by the door as she straightened and he didn’t fight her as she tugged on his collar. His lips met hers and Sakura kissed him softly, but sincerely. 

“Thank you for everything,” she smiled. “Can I take you out to dinner?”

“You don’t owe me anything,” he said, remarkably calm.

“No. I don’t,” she agreed, “But I still want to take you to dinner. Tomorrow?”

“That would be… acceptable.”

“I’ll pick you up at five then Ibiki.”

Morino Ibiki nodded once and she left with a faint smile. 

.--.

Sakura was exactly on time fist raised to knock at Five. Ibiki greeted her calmly and she took a moment to glance at his outfit. He had forgone the trench coat but kept the bandana and standard jonin outfit.

“Do I pass inspection?” he asked dryly.

“Yes,” she grinned, shouldering her purse and moving aside so he could step out and lock his apartment. 

He stepped into the hall with her and then looked at her as he finished locking the door. 

“I will ask once more if you are sure of this. You owe me nothing.”

Sakura took in his expression and laughed.

“Ibiki, this isn’t about debts,” she said slipping her arm in his, “This is about good company and good food.”

“And I have a reputation you will not escape,” he said, “Even if it is only friendly dinner.”

She snorted and pat his arm.

“And I have a reputation as well. As a kunoichi and as the Hokage’s apprentice. No one will think you are forcing me or I am going along out of fear. They’re more likely to say you’re the one getting fooled by me for some reason.”

He snorted as well but she felt him relax under her hold. Ibiki was head of TI and had a fearsome reputation, and if she were perhaps some nameless genin or chunin they would whisper about how he had intimidated her onto a date, but Sakura was someone with power and no one would claim he could force her to do anything. 

.--.

The dinner had been perfectly nice. They’d made small talk and argued about the best way to cook eggs and avoided every mention of IT or the hospital (which was quite hard when that was both of their entire lives pretty much). But they were also on a nice date and both knew you didn’t endlessly complain about work on a date. 

When they ended up back on Ibiki’s doorstep, Sakura having insisted on escorting him home to his amusement, Sakura didn’t make any move to leave.

“Are you going to invite me in?” Sakura asked casually, peering up at him through her lashes.

Ibiki paused, suddenly a tad more unsure. After a moment he silently held the door open wide and she slipped in. She set her purse on the table but didn’t removed the tall heels she had been wearing earlier. 

“If you really don’t want me here,” Sakura asked as she unbuttoned her shirt, “I’ll leave.”

Ibiki silently watched as she undid her shirt, tugged it out of her skirt and let it hang open over a scarlet bra. Her skirt was neat and pressed and the zipper invisible until she pulled it down.

“Otherwise I’m going to ride you until you pass out,” Sakura said cheerfully.

Ibiki pulled his headband off. And when she didn’t flinch, didn’t stop shimming her skirt off, something like a smile flickered across his hard mouth. 

“You think I’m going to let you pin me down?” he asked and it sounded like a challenge. 

“Oh honey, you won’t be able to stop me if I want to keep you trapped in bed all night.”

Ibiki licked her teeth and tried to hide the grin as he looked at Sakura in blood red lingerie, still wearing deadly heels and looking at him like a big cat watched a mouse. When he approached her he did so with a straight back that she grinned at. She would probably end up making him bend, but he was going to fight her for that. 

Sakura wouldn’t have it any other way.

.--.

Tsunade gave her the flattest look the next day.

“I have here,” Tsunade said slowly, tone poisonous, “A report from Shiranui Genma. Do you know where he lives Sakura?”

“Right next to Ibiki?” Sakura asked, trying to bite back a grin.

“Indeed,” Tsunade said, “And this is a request to investigate a noise disturbance. Apparently someone spent all night banging on his wall and he is ever so worried someone might have been in trouble.”

“Ibiki has a terrible bedframe,” Sakura said unapologetic, “And maybe Genma should mind his own damn business.”

“…Ibiki? Really Sakura,” Tsunade finally sighed, annoyance sloughing off of her. 

“You got a problem with it?” Sakura asked cheerfully knowing her mentor really didn’t. 

“I liked you better when you actually cared about my opinion,” Tsunade huffed at her.

“Oh I care, but I’ve also learned to recognize teasing,” Sakura beamed at her, “And yeah, Ibiki. He’s quite the conversationalist.”

“Yeah cause you’re definitely banging his headboard all night over conversation,” Tsunade drawled, “Now, go tell Genma his request for an investigation is turned down. And that if he tries to get gossip through mission channels I’ll punt him over the Hokage Monument. Also tell him to mind his own damn business.”

Sakura offered her a lazy salute. Ibiki was more than happy to help her on the ‘mission’ and they both showed up that evening at Genma’s door with a fruit basket and an apology for having such loud and amazing sex right next door to his room. 

The combined weight of Sakura’s manic grin, Ibiki’s glower, and the word sex in context between them made Genma mind his own damn business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Started a tad heavier, ended lighter. Just some fun times for Sakura and Ibiki that i meant to expand on and never did.
> 
> It was mostly going to be a light hearted story of Ibiki and Sakura finding a sort of quiet happiness to the general shock of most of the people around them. Genma would move away a few weeks later. Would feature a scene of Sakura's dad trying to give Ibiki the shovel talk and failing.


	3. To be Crowned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura gets involved in Fire Court politics. She raises a King.

Sakura attended the Daimyo’s court on the summer of her 15th year. 

Sakura in the eyes of the world was the Godaime Hokage’s apprentice in medic jutsu. She was a young woman who was buried under work and overworked by a Hokage who had little time to teach. Thus Sakura was recognized as a medic but no one really knew the extent to which she had been trained. Most regarded her as the same as the Hokage’s other apprentice, Shizune, who was a mousy quite woman who could hold her own but was no great genius. People like Tsunade came about once a generation people concluded, and Sakura was not the one of hers. 

In the eyes of Konoha-nin, Sakura was an overworked genin under the guise of apprentice. Oh, many saw her as a great medic, a genius even, but they mostly saw Sakura running helter-skelter at the command of their Kage, scrolls trailing her exhausted form. They saw a girl buried in paperwork and book work who was dragged into the labs by Shizune more often then she worked with patients. They had heard the rumblings of the training Tsunade sometimes gave her in far flung training fields, but any brave enough to try and catch a glimpse of that training often saw the Hokage laughing as she threw boulders at the girl and not much else.

To the Godaime Hokage, Sakura was a prodigy who would one day overshoot even herself. Tsunade saw the way Sakura ran herself into the ground with training and seemed to devour knowledge. She was watching every step of the way as Sakura made progress in leaps and bounds. Every time she thought Sakura might start to level out skill wise and maybe could use some time in the hospital or on missions, she suddenly made some leap of skill. Sakura was forging ahead like a wild bull, unstoppable even when it looked to have calmed. Her time, Tsunade decided, was much better spent in lessons or on the training field. No need to take out time for boring hospital rounds or pointless missions. Until Sakura stopped absorbing her lessons like a sponge did water, she would teach the girl. Admittedly, Tsunade had very little time to teach, but Sakura was doing fine with scroll work and Shizune’s help. Tsunade also kept her close, having her work as an assistant so they could talk medical jargon and lessons while Tsunade ran a village.

In all, Sakura Haruno was a prettily wrapped surprise just waiting to explode on the world in all her glory. But not quite yet. For now she was a surprise still waiting to be sprung, she was still an unassuming civilian born Kunoichi. 

Thus, on the summer of her 15th year, she was sent on a mission uniquely suited to her; Daimyo protection.

Sakura’s civilian family were very well-off cloth merchants who had raised their daughter to be a dutiful daughter with all the proper pretty manners. Until she had joined the academy Sakura had been slated for an arrange marriage to expand their business and had started learning all the duties that belonged to a wife and daughter and mother. Even while in the academy her mother had made sure she kept up her lessons in the hopes she would drop out of the shinobi life. They had never wanted her to pick that path but had no power over that decision in a dictator run military village. Sakura, as a dutiful and smart young woman, had learned everything from tea ceremony to flower arrangement to etiquette as well as she had learned how to throw knives. 

And at 15 she was no less skilled at any of these niceties despite having little time for them. Kunoichi were also trained in seduction and genjutsu and all the little tricks to make them look softer and prettier than their male counterparts. Sakura wasn’t as deep in these lessons, but she knew enough.

That she could crush a man’s chest cavity with a flick of her wrist was a bonus. 

So pretty little pink haired Haruno Sakura was sent off to the Daimyo’s court to protect him against some trivial assassination plot. In pretty green kimono and with her hair pinned back, black kohl around her eyes, and polish on her nails, she looked like a demure young woman being introduced to court. That her hands had calluses from smashing rock, and scalpel nicks on her skin, and knives tucked under her sleeves was something no one else knew. 

.--.

“Drop the pleasantries,” Madoka Ikkyuu said the moment the door closed.

Sakura looked up from her deep bow at the man seated before her, looking at her carefully.

“Daimyo-sama,” she greeted,

“You may call me Ikkyuu in private,” he said, “It is good to see the Godaime took my request seriously; sending her apprentice.”

“Yes, Ikkyuu-sama,” Sakura bowed briefly, “She passes on her regards.”

“Ah, Tsunade,” he said, the hint of a fond smile lighting his lips.

The man before her had to be Tusnade’s age, though his hair had slipped into grey his face remained fresh and unlined. The hint of wrinkles at the corner of his eyes betrayed a weathered man, but the luxuries of a court life had kept him soft. 

“I have arranged a room for you,” the Daimyo said, slipping out of reminiscing, “close to my quarters. You will most likely be mistaken for my consort.”

He didn’t ask if she was fine with this and Sakura simply bowed. Despite how well he regarded shinobi, and his personal ties to Tsunade, Sakura knew where she stood with the leader of her country. She also knew that despite the fact Daimyo had supposed power over the ninja villages, Sakura was safe as a representative of Tsunade. In truth the Hokage and Daimyo were on more even ground than many liked to think. They were in an eternal stalemate, each needing the other and not wanting the chaos a coup could create, and they both respected that. But Sakura was also neither of these people. She was a sworn shinobi, a tool, and she was ready to complete her mission no matter what.

“You will meet my family over the next while as well. I assume you know details of them already.”

And Sakura did from her briefing. The Daimyo had been married thrice, his first wife dying young, his second dying in childbirth, and the third still alive. He had had countless consorts in there as well. As a result, he had four sons and two daughters. The son of his first wife was now twenty-eight and in line for the throne. The son of his second wife was but twenty-five and trained as a spare heir. The sons of the third wife were still young enough to be looked after by nannies and tutors. His two daughters, both over fifteen, were long married off, one in Wind country, the other to a loyal retainer’s family.

.--.

Empty Bit

.--.

“Sakura.”

Sakura turned, a smile twisting her lips as she found Ichigo waiting.

The young lord’s eyes were crinkled with warmth and he was already smiling as well. She could see he was dressed in the same colors as her and realized he had asked the maids what she was wearing to coordinate. In his hand sat a bough of colorful blossoms. 

“I know it might me cliché,” he said as he got closer, “But I couldn’t help but think of you.”

Sakura took the bough of young Sakura blossoms, an early set all soft and pale like stained glass. 

“Cliché doesn’t mean unappreciated,” she told him.

“Would you do me the honor of letting me accompany you around the gardens?” he asked, beaming.

“Of course,” she laughed.

He let her lead them down the twisting paths, slipping through plum trees as they meandered through the outer gardens. They shared a comfortable silence in the cool spring air. 

“Sakura,” Ichigo finally said, “I…”

He paused and Sakura allowed him his thoughts as she looked down at the Sakura blossoms in her hand. 

“Sakura,” he repeated, “I am ill. You yourself have seen it is incurable. I do not have many years left in me. But, I would be…overjoyed if you would spend the few I have left with me.”

“Are you asking me to stay in the court?” she asked.

“No,” he said.

He reached out and clasped her hands and she looked up at the boldness of the move, his thumbs stroking across her skin.

“Sakura, would you stay with me as my wife?”

Sakura had…well, not quite expected the question, but still wasn’t completely caught off guard by it.

“Ichigo,” she said softly, “You are a lord and I am a shinobi. My place is in your shadow, guarding your back, not at your side.”

“No,” he denied, “You place is with me in the sunshine, with your hand in mine.”

“We won’t be allowed to get married,” she said just as gently, but did not tug her hands from his.

His smile was a bright thing.

“My father has given his permission,” he said, “He knows how happy you make me. Please Sakura, stay with me.”

Sakura looked into his strong dark eyes and his pale complexion. She looked at the young lord who was crippled by illness and who would not live to see his thirties. 

“I…” she said.

She thought of Konoha. Thought of the fact the battlefield made her blood sing. Thought of Team Seven and the Konoha Nine and Tsunade. She thought of duty. 

“Yes,” she finally said, turning to smile shyly up at him, “Yes. I will Marry you.”

He engulfed her in a hug and she curled into his chest, pressing her face to his breast so tightly she could hear his heartbeat.

“I promise you all the happiness and love I can give you,” he whispered in her ear. 

“And I promise to keep you alive to do it,” she returned.

He held her tighter and neither cared that the sakura blossoms crumpled and crumbled between their bodies. 

.--.

The wedding was of course an extravagant affair. The city was alive with the joy of it and feasts were prepared and festivities planned. The Daimyo’s second son, his favoured son, was being married for love and no expense was spared. Sakura was swept off for fittings and questions about tastes and flung from person to person. Ichigo snuck every spare moment he could with her even as he helped his father with the organizing, looking at the financial and planning aspects. Invitations were sent far and wide, Sakura’s hand signing only a few. 

To Konoha, went four pretty little letters. Tsunade (and Shizune), Kakashi, her parents, and Ino all received beautiful scrolls with her hand written invitation and warnings to keep their mouths shut. She hovered over one letter for hours and hours before finally ripping it up. She wasn’t sure Naruto would approve of her marriage, for history of his crush, for pulling her away from Konoha, for further breaking up Team seven. 

So Sakura felt content with the few she had invited and let the city bubble up in excitement over her upcoming nuptials. 

The ninja of Konoha came two days before the wedding and Tsunade and the Daimyo shut themselves in the office immediately.

“Sakura,” her mother called, eyes filled with tears.

Sakura hugged her parents and letter her mother flutter over her.

“Married to a prince,” her father grinned, “I always told you, you were my little princess.”

Sakura laughed and when her mother gushed about how happy she was that Sakura was just getting married, she still smiled. She knew if it had been anyone less than a lord at the other end of this agreement they would have raised holy hell like they had when she broke a betrothal for the ninja academy. She played the dutiful daughter and then led them to their rooms and passed them off to the maids. 

Ino gave no words just crushed Sakura in a hug, burying her face in Sakura’s shoulder. She clung like it was a funeral and not a wedding and Sakura smiled fondly and hugged her back, burying her face in Ino’s soft sunshine hair. 

“Sakura,” Ino breathed, “Say the word and we’ll take you and run. Hatake will back me up.”

“Oh Ino,” Sakura said, “Thank you, but this will be no hardship.”

“He’s kind then.”

It wasn’t a question but she answered

“Yes. And he loves me.”

“You’re more dutiful than I,” Ino gave her a tight smile.

Sakura smiled and hugged her best friend again. After Ino was showed to her room, Sakura found Kakashi lurking in the shadows of the meeting room, keeping half his senses on Tsunade, unwilling to let his guard down even in the heart of the Daiymo’s court. Sakura had learned he had been called Hound in ANBU. She’d also learned he’d been called the Hokage’s Dog, and it wasn’t whispered nicely. Sakura was just pleased with his loyalty to Tsunade. 

“Sakura,” Kakashi smiled, ruffling her hair.

“Sensei,” she smiled, not even protesting the messy hair. 

“Pimping yourself out for Konoha, eh,” he said, voice low and discreet.

Sakura had hatred how blunt he was as a younger child. Now she appreciated it. 

“I’m marrying for love,” she demurred.

“But not yours,” he said, “I suppose there are worst things to do in the service of Konoha.”

“I like Ichigo. He is a kind man.”

“Good.”

And that was that. 

.--.   
.--.  
.--.

PREMISE/NOTES:

Second son is sickly so half her mission is to try and heal him but it is a genetic disease from his mother’s line. He’s not thought to live much longer. Sakura can ease the sickness but not cure him. He is his father’s favorite child and closet to Ikkyuu in personality. He falls for her hard because most people shy away from him (idiots think its contagious or don’t want children with the illness). He’s a decade older than her but asks her to marry him with his father’s blessing. Because of the sickness and place as second heir no one really cares who he marries and the Daimyo likes Sakura and wants his son to be happy.

She does it out of duty and within the first year bears him a set of twins (Sakura is a top teir medic who is set to overtake Tsunade – she managed to make herself pregnant with twins and ones without the illness). One son and one daughter. The time-skip in Naruto lasts long enough for her to dothis and everything comes to a head after the birth of her kids. She has been jumping between the capital and Konoha for half the year to continue her studies and be a ninja, but half her duty is in the capital now. Very few know of the marriage outside Kakashi, Tsunade, and the council in Konoha because most Konoha-nin don’t care about civilian gossip/don’t care who Sakura is. No one really cares for the sickly second prince and his shinobi born children. 

Sakura fights in the war because it is her duty and she still has friends in Konoha (plus her children will die with everyone else if she loses).

After the war Sasuke tries to get her to marry him and she laughs in his face to his and Naruto’s shock. While she’s still close with them she’s made a life in the Capital and while she isn’t in love with her husband she cares for him dearly (at this point she’s spent more time with him than with Team Seven). Plus you know, kids she loves. 

She then returns to the capital. Since she can ease the sickness the prince lives to see his son and daughter turn seven. Sakura raises them in the court but teaches them everything she can as well. Uncle Kakashi often comes and helps. The Daimyo likes the son of the white fang and lets him stay in the court as Sakura and Ichigo’s main guard and he does it happily (helps him avoid Hokage duty and is semi-retirement). Besides, Sakura was always his favourite student and you can’t change my mind on that. Naruto becomes Hokage early with a lot of guidance from everyone. 

In the capitol the Daimyo’s heir (fist son) never has children. Sakura even attends to him to make sure he is not sick, checks his two wives and multiple concubines as well but reveals they are all healthy. Still no children and people murmur it’s a bad omen. Sakura of course is a top-tier medic, the leading medic in the world in fact. It’s quite easy while under the guise of check-ups to make sure the first prince never has children. So when the Daimyo get’s old and starts to worry about his line he declares Sakura’s son his heir instead unless his first son has children soon. Ikkyu loved his second son best and sees how Sakura, raising her kids with a shinobi’s discipline, but also with a focus on knowledge, is making strong children; less spoiled and soft. This sows political discord of course, but no one can deny the first prince must be able to have children to have his line rule. Sakura’s children are also very well protected under Sakura and Kakashi’s eyes. 

Sakura found her happy-ever after with her son being crowned as Daimyo. Little civilian Sakura called weak for years made her own future and in a way took control of all of Fire Country. Maybe a little hint of Kakashi/Sakura at the end as well since she her husband died.


	4. Well Would You Look at That

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura and Kakashi and their established relationship gets a bit of a surprise.

Sakura looked at herself in the mirror and smoothed down her shirt and skirt. She looked….normal she supposed. Short pink hair, bright green eyes, wiry muscles. She looked even more normal wearing her red tank-top and her white skirt over black shorts. 

“Huh,” she said, twisting to see her back and sides, “Well how about that.”

She stared for another moment and then smiled slightly.

“Done appreciating yourself?”

She turned to look at Kakashi, who was leaning against the doorframe, smiling at her, amused.

“Yup,” she smiled. 

“What were you admiring then?” He asked stepping forward.

“My weight gain,” she grinned.

“Your weight is fine,” He said automatically, “I was personally admiring your backside.”

She slapped him playfully as he rubbed his hand up said backside. 

“I have to get to work you pervert,” she said, “Meet me for dinner?”

“Where at?” He asked. 

“Satoshi’s Sushi,” she said.

“Some special occasion?” He asked pecking her on the cheek.

“Yes,” she smiled.

“…I didn’t forget an anniversary did I?” he asked slowly.

“No you idiot,” she laughed, “Just some things we need to talk about.

“…good things?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. I’ll see you at five then.”

She leaned up to kiss him and he readily returned it.

“Have fun at the hospital,” He breathed as she broke the kiss.

She smiled and rolled his mask up for him.

“Have fun training with Naruto,” she returned.

.--.

When Sakura walked into the sushi restaurant she was carrying some forms she would need, along with a few folders. Kakahsi wasn’t there yet, but she had expected that. She smiled at the waiter and took a seat in one of the small tables in the back. She made an order for her and Kakashi and sat with a happy sigh.

She started to fill out forms while she waited. Kakashi was late as always, but with her he would never leave her sitting there for hours at least. She expected him within the next twenty minutes.

True to her estimate, he appeared in the seat fifteen minutes later.

“How was training?” She grinned at him, taking in the dirt in his hair.

“Good. Naruto is working on taijutsu again,” Kakashi said, popping a piece of sushi in his mouth, “How was the hospital?”

“It was mostly a paperwork day. I also had to talk with Tsunade for a while.”

“Nothing bad I hope.”

“Mostly a check up,” Sakura said, “I told you I had been feeling a bit tired lately and you remember when I thought I had the flu a month ago?”

“Yes?” he said warily.

“Well, I’m three months pregnant.”

There was a moment of silence. She looked up from the form. Kakashi was staring at her. She waited for a response but he just sat there. She looked back down at the forms she was filling out in preparation for maternity leave. 

“You’re sure?” he asked finally.

“Yes.”

“We didn’t notice for three months,” He said blankly.

“I’m one in a couple hundred,” she shrugged, “I’m fit enough that a new change in the body won’t wreak as much havoc. Along with the fact that I’ve reacted well to the new hormones and haven’t been losing my breakfast every day. And I just don’t show that much, and probably won’t experience much weight gain.”

He was silent again. She ate some sushi as she waited for some form of response that wasn’t just information gathering. He was silent for the next fifteen minutes, looking down at his hands. She left him to his thoughts as she finished off her dinner, finished most of the form, and then tucked her work away. She stood and paid for the dinner, then led her boyfriend out of the restaurant and headed home. The walk was done in silence, which wasn’t unusual, but the lack of attempted flirtatious grabs and winks and words was unusual. 

Sakura opened the door to their small apartment and slipped her sandals off, watching as Kakashi did. He boyfriend headed immediately for the living room where he flopped onto the couch. Sakura put her paperwork in the appropriate shelves she had commandeered from her boyfriend’s icha icha collection. 

When she was done she went and took a shower to wipe away the day’s wear away. After that she slipped into one of her lazing about the houses dresses and returned to the living room. Kakashi hadn't moved an inch.

“We need to talk about this,” she said aloud, “I know you haven’t talked about kids or about us. I know you might not want this. But I am having this child.”

She was no longer the weak, useless frilly little genin from when she had met Kakashi. She was now a strong independent woman and she would do what she needed to do.

“I love you,” Sakura said strongly, not letting her tone waver, “But I can do this without you. I will raise him and love him enough for two. If you do not want him to know who his father is, I will agree. If you never want to see him, I will agree. But if you at some later date try to take him from me I will kill you.”

“Sakura,” Kakashi interrupted. 

She breathed deeply, and realized she was near tears. She needed a reaction and he wasn’t giving her one. So she had started to assume the worse even before this rant.

“I am having your child Hatake Kakashi, with or without you.”

He was on his feet in an instant, gathering her in her arms.

“Sakura,” He said again, “I…when did I ever say I didn’t want this child. You are making all these plans for if I say I don’t want you two anymore, without even letting me tell you I do want you.”

Sakura clung to her former sensei as the dam broke. She had never thought of children, never really planned for them, but in the life of a ninja you didn’t plan far ahead. She had dreamed of it once or twice, but then again she had also dreamed of being Hokage once or twice and that was never going to happen. But when she had heard the news she was pregnant she had suddenly had vivid pictures of this soon to be child in her arms. And she had loved him instantly. 

“I love you,” she whimpered into Kakashi’s chest, “But I will not give them up for you.”

“I’m not asking you to,” Kakashi whispered, “I’m so sorry. I never spoke of children or family or such, because I had thought it was obvious.”

“What was obvious?”

“That I don’t care what happens, how many kids we have or don’t have as long as I’m with you.”

“You…you mean it?” She sniffled.

“Of course Sakura,” He rested his forehead against hers to look into her eyes, “I didn’t mean to frighten you with my silence just now. I was just thinking about it, picture it in my heads and making plans. I should have said something, but I was already planning on a new house and a nursery.”

“Really?” She asked with a water smile.

“Really. I love you Sakura, and I will love our child just as much.”

“I love you too,” she smiled.

She stayed like that for the next while, Sakura clinging to her boyfriend with thoughts of her child in her mind. Kakashi just held her gently.

“So…celebration sex?” Kakashi finally asked.

“You pervert,” she laughed. 

She hoped he never changed. She wondered how she had ever been scared of his reaction. He would always be there for her.

.--.

“You knocked her up?!” Naruto squeaked.

“Don’t be so crude,” Sakura snapped at Naruto as she downed a bowl of pork ramen. 

“You don’t look fat yet, ugly, are you sure it’s three months?” Sai smiled.

“Ha!” she laughed at him, “I’m gonna stay skinny just so you can’t call me fat.”

Kakashi eye smiled from beside her, a hand resting near her own hand. 

“Does anyone else know?” Naruto demanded.

“Only Tsunade and Shizune,” Sakura smiled, “I told you guys first.”

“Most of the Konoha ninja aren’t even aware we are together,” Kakashi noted. 

“I thought for sure they would catch on the first month you guys dated,” Naruto said.

“You didn’t even know we were dating for four months,” Sakura pointed out. 

“I mean the month after I found out,” He huffed, “I thought Kakashi wouldn’t be able to keep his hands to himself, the pervert.”

“I’m right here,” Kakashi rolled his eyes, “And we’ve been discreet. Most of them just assume we have a good working student teacher relationship like you and I.”

Naruto snorted. 

“Will you be getting married?”

They all turned to look at Sai who smiled. 

“I read that in the case of unwed pregnancy, the couple usually gets married to regain respect.”

Sakura snorted.

“That’s true amongst civilians,” Sakura said, “To be an unwed mother is a hard thing as a civilian, and very, very disrespected. But amongst ninja, not so much.”

“Well are you going to ask her to marry you Kakashi?” Naruto demanded.

Kakashi just eye smiled and Sakura kicked her teammate under the table to make the blonde shut up.

“Keep it under wraps for now would you,” Sakura said to Naruto and Sai as they paid for dinner.

“Of course,” Naruto said seriously, “Will you tell Yamato?”

“Tenzo will be told,” Sakura smiled, “He’s on a mission at the moment though.”

“We’ll keep mum about it too,” Ayame winked at her from behind the counter.

“Thank you,” she smiled at the cook and his daughter. 

Really, she wondered how many secrets those two knew considering Naruto, the Hokage-in-training had lunch and sometimes dinner here all the time.

.--.

“So this is where you’ve been sneaking off too.”

Kakashi nearly leapt out of his skin, spinning to face Sakura who gazed at the old traditional house with something akin to surprise.

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” He said sullenly as she invited herself into the yard, slipping through the small wooden gate.

“Is it the Hatake home?” She asked, “I had thought you didn’t have it anymore as you’ve always stayed in your apartment. 

He appreciated her genius for a moment at connecting the dots.

“I’ve just had it locked up under key and seals,” Kakashi shrugged, “Didn’t think I would ever sue it, but didn’t want to get rid of it.”

She nodded and he gave a sigh before offering her a hand. She beamed and accepted it. He led her to the house and slid in the open door .

“I’ve mostly only dusted it out,” He said, “And let some air and sun in.”

Currently every window and door was thrown wide open to let in fresh air. 

“It’s in good shape,” she said looking about.

“A few leaks in the roof,” He said conversely, “But easily fixable.”

“It’s quite large,” she noted looking at the large living room.

“Well, our family will be growing,” He said blandly, eyes falling to her still mostly flat stomach.

She was showing a bit now, but it mostly looked just like a bit of extra weight around the middle area. She hid it under her lab coats and jonin vest easily enough, or loose dresses when she wasn’t working. She just beamed at him, hand going to rub her belly.

“Show me our room,” she smiled.

He showed her the baby’s room first.

“I thought it would be good for him,” Kakashi said, showing her the corner room with lots of lights. 

“And ours,” she once again demanded.

He hesitantly showed her to a large room down the hall.

“This is the master bedroom.”

She looked about and Kakashi let her, not daring to look at the clean spot in the middle of the room. 

“You don’t want this room though,” she said, looking at him.

He flinched slightly at how easily she saw through him, but she squeezed his hand softly.

“Show me our room,” she repeated, “Not the biggest room.”

He felt himself flush slightly at her smile which was soft and caring and above all loving.

He led her to a smaller room right across from their soon to be child’s one.

“This one will be perfect,” she smiled, “We can turn the master bedroom into storage.”

He hugged her gently, relieved by how she did not question his obvious discomfort for the large master bedroom. There was no trace of his father in it nearly twenty years later, and yet he still could see the puddle of blood and his father’s lifeless body. He was absolutely sure that in the coming years though, his sun would run through that room with nothing but a smile on his face.

.--.

“Are you okay Sakura?” Ino asked, concerned.

“I’m fine,” Sakura winced, popping her back, “Just a bit tired.”

“Yes, well, you’re overworking yourself at the hospital,” Ino sniped.

Sakura made a face at her. 

“Why did you even get yourself taken off active mission duty?” Ino asked, neatly eating her bbq.

“Tsunade wanted some help implementing a few new programs in the hospital and thought I could use the experience. If I had stayed on the active duty roster I would have never had the time,” Sakura said, “Don’t worry, I’ll go back on later, Pig.”

“I’m not worrying, billboard brow,” she sniffed, “Just saying you’ve gained a bit of weight without the exercise real missions give you.”

“I’m still not as pudgy as you, Pig,” Sakura grinned, “Your butt has gotten huge lately.”

“That’s not fat!” Ino spluttered, “That’s my new armour and your know it!”

Sakura did know that but diverted the own subject of her weight easily. Shikamaru, who had sat silently beside Ino the entire time narrowed his eyes thoughtfully as they landed on Sakura. She shot him a glare that Ino didn’t notice and the lazy ninja gave a silent sigh of defeat and looked away. Sakura wasn’t stupid though and knew he already had worked out she was pregnant. Damn geniuses. She would have to move her plans forward.

.--.

“Kakashi’s Mate!” Urushi yipped running circles around Sakura.

“Hello Boys,” Sakura greeted the dogs that were running about the yard. 

She closed the gate behind her so none of the dogs ran into the street but knew the gate the height of her would not stop them if they wanted out. The dogs gathered about her and she handed out pats and scratches as she made her way to the house. Then Bull planted himself in front of her and pressed his nose to her crotch. 

“Stop that you!” She blushed patting his head. 

“Humans think that rude Bull,” Pakkun sighed as he ambled towards them. 

“You are having puppies,” Bull slobbered happily licking her clothed tummy.

Sakura sighed as the dogs went spastic, barking and yowling. Shoving wet noses at her stomach and wagging their tails ferociously they babbled and yipped happily.

“Is it Kakashi’s puppy?” Shiba asked lolling his tongue, “Oh please say it is!”

“Of course it’s Kakashi’s Puppy,” Pakkun growled as he shoved closer, sniffing her, “And they’re called children, not puppies for humans.”

“Thank you Pakkun,” she smiled, scooping the small dog up.

“Whoa! Should you be carrying me while pregnant?” He asked, worried. 

“I’m not glass,” she laughed as she walked towards the Hatake house, a trail of dogs following her. 

“And you guys need to keep quiet about the Puppy,” Kakashi’s voice carried from inside the open door.

Most of the dogs went to crowd him, licking and laughing and telling him they hopped he had lost of puppies. Sakura smiled fondly at them all and noted there was a modern dog door built into the wall by the traditional one, big enough even for Bull. Maybe she should suggest turning the Master room he hated so much into the Dog’s room. 

.--.

“Hey,” Genma whistled over the din of noise.

Most of the jonin in the jonin lounge glanced up from whatever they were doing at the grab of attention. Gai stopped his push-up and glanced up, while Kakashi, sitting on his back, looked over his book. 

“We have an incoming,” Genma said opening the window.

A familiar blur came flipping in, landing neatly on her feet.

“Hey Pink!” Anko greeted with a grin. 

“How’s it going Sakura?” Raido smiled.

“Hey guys,” she waved at them absently. 

“Yo,” Kakashi greeted her as her eyes locked onto him like he was a bull’s-eye and she the kunai.

She gave him a solemn look and strode over to him confidently, hips swaying just slightly in the way that made her butt look very alluring. Her expression was missing the smile but reminded him of cat that ate a canary and then got a bowl of cream.

Sakura dropped to one knee in front of him, still sitting on Gai’s back. A sort of dead silence fell over the room as everyone held their breath, Gai staying locked ridged as he stared at them in surprise. 

“Hatake Kakashi,” Sakura said softly, voice still strong enough to be heard all around the room, “You are a pervert. An absolutely, incurable pervert who is constantly late. You make up the worst excuses and have problems with authority. You continue to make a fool of yourself, walking around reading Icha Icha and skip out on any bill you can. But you’re also a strong, brilliant man. You’re a master of ninjutsu and the sharingan and protect those you love with your life. Without you I would not be who I am today. Without you I would only be half of a person. Hatake Kakashi, will you marry and make me whole?”

There was silence in which you could hear a pin drop. Sakura pulled out the small box in her front pocket and popped it open to reveal a silver colored band that was plain but beautiful. 

“Of course I will,” Kakashi smiled at her, tossing the Icha Icha book over his shoulder in a move that made everyone gasp

He slipped off of Gai’s back and scooped his new fiancé up in his arms, bending her to kiss her soundly. 

“But I think I’ll have to ask you to take the name Hatake, not Haruno,” He smiled at her as he pulled back.

“Acceptable,” she grinned. 

“Is this a joke?” Genma finally asked in the silence.

The two looked up at the room full of Jonin staring at them wide eyed and open mouthed. One man was subtly trying to dispel genjutsu.

“We’ll send you all wedding invitations by mail,” Sakura acknowledged them, “For now, celebratory sex!”

Kakashi eagerly swept her up bridal style and with a puff of smoke they were gone leaving an erupting chaos in their wake. 

.--.

“Sakura!”

Knock, knock, knock, knock-

“Shut up!” Sakura growled as she ripped the door open to Naruto’s manic grin.

“Clothes!” he yelped, grin slipping away.

She dragged him inside, Sai following with his usual smile. Sakura, wearing nothing but underwear and a very low tank top, shot them a glare knowing damn well they’d seen her in less over the years.

“Now what is so important you had to wake me up on my day off?” She asked, looking at them with a deep frown. 

“We heard the news!” Naruto crowed, “About how you smashed through a window, nearly killed Gai to get to Kakashi, ripped up his Icha Icha, then demanded he marry you. He gave in and you guys had sex on the jonin lounge floor!”

Sakura couldn’t contain the snort. 

“The actual story,” Sai correct, “Is that you burst into the full Jonin Lounge and asked Kakashi to marry you in front of about thirty witnesses.”

“And you want to confirm?” Sakura raised a brow.

“Oh no, we believe it!” Naruto grinned, “We just had to tell you about the chaos! Four jonin rushed to granny Tsunade to tell her you were under the influence of drugs, genjutsu, and a poison. Kurenai went to scold Ino for using Yamanaka jutsu on you and Gai has sworn to track Kakashi down and demand an answer to this ‘unyouthful’ joke. Genma is setting up bets on how long till you break out of whatever influence is on you and beat Kakashi senseless. Anko is setting up bets on how kinky you two are. And Iruka is after your blood for fooling around with poor innocent Sakura-chan.”

Sakura tried to hide the giggles but broke down as Kakashi emerged from the room in only pants and asked if Anko would take his own bet or would instead want confirmation. Naruto’s horrified face made the early rise worth it. 

.--.

It was a spring wedding, bordering on a summer one. And a very informal one at that. Sakura wore a beautiful white sundress covered in cherry blossoms at the hem and Kakashi wore black pants and a black shirt and mask. Gai stood next to Kakashi as his best man, wearing the regular spandex. Ino stood next to Sakura as her ‘best woman’ and wore a purple dress and shot glares of death at Gai and his spandex. Naruto had sulked about the best man thing until he was told he could help by setting up the event. The boy was colorblind and ADHD but he was surprisingly good at organizing. 

They had the ceremony in one of the many parks of Konoha, filled with blooming wildflowers and fresh grass. Tsunade officiated the ceremony and they simply allowed her to read some regular vows, each whispering private ones in the other’s ear. When they were pronounced man and wife, Kakashi dipped her and kissed her, angling it so no one could see his face making the whole group burst out in outraged chatter, most having thought this would be the moment. Sakura just laughed.

After that there was dancing and gifts exchanged and Naruto had somehow arranged a gigantic cake that was designed like a dog with a crown of cherry blossoms. The dog of course was orange just because Naruto couldn’t resist. Sakura didn’t even care as she and Kakashi spun and laughed and fed each other cake. 

Most of the jonin of Konoha attended the wedding along with a good chunk of chunin. A few unmasked, totally-not ANBU had come too and it was a large but merry gathering. Gai insisted on giving a speech about Kakashi but no one really got anything out of it through all the flowery talk of youth and blossoms and happiness. Naruto also gave a speech that somehow ended in him saying he had better be godfather.

Which of course revealed that Sakura was pregnant. 

So celebratory sake was broke out after everyone gave expression of shock. Some people questioned how deadly the kid of the Hokage’s apprentice and the legendary copy-nin would be. Most people just wondered if the poor kid would get pink hair or not. Thus the betting pools opened up again. 

Sakura had to say it was pretty much the best day of her life.

.--.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a fluffy story of Sakura and Kakashi and domestic bliss. Was going to write a bit more of them with a kid and all the various 'uncles' and 'aunts' that were totally-not-ANBU.


	5. Dancer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kisame gets an eye full of a pretty 'dancer' while Itachi seduces their target.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Watch Caravan Palace's music video 'Lone Digger' to see the outfit/scene I was picturing.

Kisame gave the room a quick glance and felt his lips curl up in a smirk. Next he looked to Itachi’s face just to watch the twitch of his eyes. His smirk widened into a full grown grin as the watched Itachi twitch again. To any other it would be an unnoticeable tick. To Kisame who had been Itachi’s partner for a decade, it was blatant emotion. Little Itachi was both embarrassed and indignant as he flickered his eyes over the girls. 

“There’s our man.” Kisame grinned at Itachi, voice barely heard in the surrounding noise.

Itachi shot him a glance then looked over to the corner where a posse of men were seated. At the center of the table was their client, smoking a cigar as he watched the tableau. He had two guards on either side and a girl in his lap. Kisame and Itachi made their way over, weaving around the crowded tables. The flashing colored lights and pounding music was a noticeable distraction, clouding the air along with the tobacco smoke. Kisame inhaled deeply, feeling the beat of music in his chest. He shot a grin at a man who pulled his eyes away from the girls long enough to gape at him.

When they reached the table Kisame crossed his arms and spread his feet and let Itachi do the talking. His partner slid into an offered seat and immediately started talking. Kisame tuned him out over the music and eyed the guards. They eyed him right back. Kisame knew he looked out of place even in his civilian clothes. The dark trousers and semi-formal button down shirt were not something he would normally be caught dead in but needs must. His looks he could do little about but clothes always helped. 

Kisame shot one last glance at Itachi and snorted as he saw their client had a glazed look on his face. He was too busy staring at Itachi. Kisame had been saying for years all that pretty made men stupid. Itachi was in civilian clothes and he pulled them off a lot better than Kisame could. With is hair loose and his posture and manners perfect he drew the eye. Maybe that would work out for them even better. Kisame left Itachi to be stared at and turned to survey the club again. 

He could sense the odd chakra-user but the club was mainly full of civilians. Those that registered were low level and most likely mercenaries or chunin on vacation. He had nothing to fear from those small fry. There was one though, one presence that niggled like it was being repressed and hidden. 

Kisame followed that signature until he was gazing in one of the cages set up around the room. It held a dancer of course, a nubile young woman moving to the beat and wearing very little. Kisame let out a low whistle, interested. She was very lithe, covered in wiry muscle and the light reflected off her creamy skin, lighting her up. She wore a thong with straps that went high over her hips and connected straight up through her breast to a thick choker about her neck. Star stickers covered her breasts and elbow length gloves covered her hands like a second skin. Killer stilettoes gave her some extra height and showed off her long, long legs. The whole thing was done up a bright pink to match her short hair. 

The girl moved like a dancer, moving to the beat and running her hands alluringly up her own sides. She coiled and uncoiled her muscles, eyes at half-mast as she moved to the music, seemingly unaware of all the eyes watching her closely. She turned and curved and Kisame watched her every move as she drew her hands up. She kept her audience captivated with her creamy skin and lithe figure by strategically moving her hands to bring draw the eye.

Kisame watched her closely, enjoying the show until a waitress sashayed around him with a tray of drinks and he heard a booming laugh. He cast a glance back at Itachi to find him sitting noticeably closer to their client, a polite smile curling his lips as he accepted a drink. 

Well, never let it be said Itachi didn’t know how to use his own sex appeal no matter how distasteful he seemed to find it. 

Itachi caught him looking and cast his glance across the room in an obvious sign. Kisame followed his gaze and frowned at the man sitting alone at a table close to the pinkette. 

Kisame raised a brow at Itachi and his partner’s face turned flinty for a moment, a warning, before he turned back to the client, polite smile back in place as he tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. Kisame slide his gaze to the man Itachi seemed concerned about. The man had silver hair, from what he could see in this light, and dark eyes. He was also sitting slouched, one hand in his pocket, on holding a drink. He was leaning back in his seat, looking utterly relaxed, and had eyes for nothing but the pinkette in the cage. 

Kisame narrowed his eyes wondering where he knew that face from but was coming up blank. He kept half an eye on the man anyways. If Itachi recognized a person enough to give a warning, they were dangerous. Luckily the man sat on the opposite side of the dancer than Kisame so Kisame could watch her to his heart’s content while also keeping the man in sight. 

Kisame looked back to the dancer and was startled to find her eyes open, watching him in return from across the room. She gave him a sultry smile and winked before dragging her hands down her breasts, pressing them together. Kisame glanced almost automatically behind him to check to see who she looking at, but no one was paying attention to her, most looking at those closer to them. He looked back and she winked again. Her next few moves were obviously meant for him as she kept her body angled his way and her eyes fixed on his. Kisame grinned widely and enjoyed the show just for him.

There was a commotion behind him and Kisame turned to find the girl on the Boss’ lap is leaving in a huff. Itachi had replaced her, leaning ever so close as he cooed to the man. Kisame winced at the way the man was panting after Itachi and turned his back on them. He looked back at the woman and frowned suddenly. He glanced past her and found the silver haired man nowhere in sight. 

Kisame twitched and glanced about quickly, flitting his eyes across the room. No sign of the man. That was…worrying. Kisame shifted his stance just the slightest and kept half an eye about. 

The Dancer winked again.

.--.

Kisame gave Itachi a subtle wave and Itachi gave a toss of his hair and a slight sneer. Kisame snorted and watched as Itachi followed the Boss, letting the tall man lace an arm around his shoulders. Kisame was under no illusion about what would be happening between them. Ironically the boss would be under illusion about it. 

Kisame chuckled to himself and watched the end of the bar carefully. The Dancer had slipped from her cage and was accepting a drink from the bartender as the bar was locked up. He watched the women shoot the vodka and then head for the employee room.

Kisame lingered until the bartender gave him a look and then he slipped out of the club. The streets were quiet this late and night and there was no one to see him slip into the back alley and lean against the wall in the shadows. He waited patiently as various girls slipped into the night, mostly in groups or with one of the bouncers, all dressed again. 

Kisame was going to give up when suddenly the door opened a final time and the pinkette stepped out of the bar. She had pulled on a pair of low jeans and a dark top that still showed a great deal of cleavage. 

She stopped before she had made it even a step and turned to stare right at him. Kisame chuckled and stepped out of the shadow. She didn’t even flinch, just looked up at him as he stepped closer. This close, in the dim light from the door he could see she was wearing a thin layer of makeup. All in pink of course. It highlighted how very green her eyes were. 

“Hello Doll,” he grinned, “Nice night, innit?” 

She smirked then, a small twitch of her lips.

“It was, hopefully it will stay that way.”

“I ain’t got no fight with you Konoichi," he said, “As long as you have no problem with our new client.”

She snorted.

“I’m not here for that asshole. I’m here for a drug dealer, not a crime lord.”

“A drug dealer warranted such a job?” he whistled, “Doll, I’d become a drug dealer just to see you in that outfit again.”

“Smooth," she barked a laugh. 

“Instead of that though, would you care to grab a drink with me?" he asked.

She paused and eyed him.

“And here I thought you were just here to scare me away from your client.”

“Naw, just thought I owe you a drink for the show you gave me.” 

She hummed and tossed her hair just the slightest.

“As long as your watcher don’t mind," he drawled.

“My watcher?” she raised a brow.

“The silver haired guy.”

“He’s not my watcher.”

“Well he was watching you very closely. Very. Couldn’t take his eyes off it seemed.”

She furrowed her brow, confused. He watched as a light flickered in her eyes as if she had had a realization.

“You know what, I will take you up on that drink," she said.

He grinned and offered his arm. As she took it, he noted she still has those killer pink stilettoes on. He wondered if he could convince her to keep them on all night.

.--.


	6. Eat Them Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura/Everyone. Sakura awakens a sexual appetite and there are so many pretty people around her she can't just chose one. Tsuande watches on with horror and glee. 
> 
> Sakura will gladly use her new skills for the good of Konoha.
> 
> Crack btws. So much crack.

Tsunade felt like it might be time to consider talking to Sakura about The Thing. 

The Thing was the fact she kept catching Sakura in compromising positions with a variety of people in a variety of places around the Hokage Tower. 

“Can I suggest a nice inn?” Tsunade asked dryly as she contemplated whether to say anything else, “After our meeting of course.”

The Sunakage looked at her with dusky teal eyes and even seemed to have a faint flush across his sun darkened skin. Tsunade was actually impressed Sakura had made the usually unflappable man blush. 

“Ah, yes, the meeting,” Sakura said as if nothing was wrong, “We were just on our way.”

Tsunade gave her a pointed look, glancing at her shirt that was hanging open and her legs locked around Gaara’s hips. Gaara seemed frozen in the face of their calmness, both hands on Sakura’s breasts. 

“Just giving him a tour of the Towers closest of course,” Tsunade said wryly. 

“Quite,” Sakura smiled, “We’ll join you in a minute.”

Tsunade took the hint and shut the door, returning to her office to pour herself some sake. Don’t get her wrong, she loved her apprentice to bits and was quite glad she’d gotten over that no-good Uchiha, but catching Sakura every week in some corner was getting to be troublesome. 

She supposed she really couldn’t say anything since Sakura hadn’t created any tension with anyone, nor was she ever lacking in her duties. In fact, she was usually too keen to see Tsunade doing her work, so these distractions left Tsunade with time to have a drink in peace. 

And really, Tsunade was sort of pleased with the girl. Somehow her little spitfire apprentice was growing up to be a seductress. It was amusing as hell to discover who she had weakened this week and taken advantage of in a closest or file room. Maybe Tsunade would just sit her down and make sure she was really up to date on her sexual health and safety. Then she had a list of people who really needed to loosen up. She was sure her apprentice and her newly awakened sexual appetite would be just amused with the list and willing to try it out. 

So Tsunade simply smiled as Sakura and Gaara stepped into her office to sign the new trade agreement they’d spent a week working on. And which worked very well in Konoha’s favor. Tsunade eyed the man’s flush as he darted a glance at Sakura while he signed. 

Oh yes. This could work out well actually. 

.--.

“That’s not even a challenge,” Sakura scoffed as Tsunade made the suggestion. 

“Oh? Big words from a small woman,” Tsunade raised a brow. 

Sakura gave her a smirk to show she was long used to Tsunade’s attempts at manipulation. 

“That assumption that men will sleep with any woman with a pulse is quite true for Shinobi who know death could be right around the corner,” Sakura shrugged, “It’s actually pathetically easy to get in their pants.”

“He’s made of sterner stuff,” Tsunade insisted. 

“Oh I’d never get him to crack if I was doing it to get information,” Sakura allowed, “But all I want is some fun and most men jump at that, him included.”

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at her and Sakura grinned right back.

“Twenty Ryo says you can’t get him in three days.”

“I’ll take your sucker bet,” Sakura cackled. 

.--.

Tsunade had to admit that she had indeed lost the bet spectacularly. She still didn’t understand how Sakura had gotten Morino Ibiki to even come to the Hokage Tower on his day off just to fuck her in the file room in time for Tsunade to walk in. 

Well, maybe enthusiasm? Tsunade wondered as she watched Sakura pin the larger man to the floor of the room with very little effort and ride him like they would be interrupted at any moment. Ibiki seemed to have no complaints as he gripped her hips and panted. Tsunade backed out of the room and closed the door. 

“How?” Tsunade asked simply after Sakura returned to the office. 

Sakura grinned like a cat that got the canary and accepted the glass of sake Tsunade held out.

“Easy Peasy. Think of a challenge next time please.”

“I don’t know if I should encourage you.” 

“Too late for that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to the hospital for my shift. And there is a particular senbon chewing shinobi who has been trying to sneak out for the past few nights who needs encouragement to stick around.”

Tsunade could say the girl’s heart was in the right place at least. She also wondered if she could pin this all on Kakashi and his porn reading habit. Maybe even make him embarrassed enough to stop the habit. 

.--.

“Please Tsunade, talk to her,” Shizune begged one day.

“Who did you walk in on her with?” Tsunade asked curiously.

“That’s not the point,” Shizune flushed. 

“Who?”

“It was Anko,” Shizune finally sighed, “She nearly skewered me when I opened the door.” 

“So is this concern for Sakura or…?”

“It’s a concern for my own health,” Shizune said, exasperated. “Every week it’s a new heart attack. And I can’t look some of them in the eye after…”

She flushed.

“Sakura is very flexible hmm. As are some of the shinobi,” Tsunade smirked. 

Shizune groaned, covering her face.

“Anko apologizes about the kunai Shizune,” Sakura said as she slipped into the room, “Anko thought you were some pervert.”

“Pot calling the Kettle,” Shizune muttered. 

“Run out of men already?” Tsunade asked idly as she squinted at a form.

“Not yet,” Sakura laughed, “But some of the Konoichi are even more fun. Besides, some of the more challenging guys have been coming by lately and I was getting frustrated.”

“Oh? And who are challenges?” Tsunade asked, enquiring.

Even Shizune perked up, wanting to know. 

“Well, Kakashi,” Sakura admitted freely. “And Iruka. Both have this sense that since they were my sensei they shouldn’t fuck me.”

“Let’s not kid ourselves. You fuck them, not the other way around,” Tsunade smirked, “It’s a hallucination if they think they’re in charge.”

“Shh. Let the men have some dignity,” Sakura grinned, wide and sharp. 

“Anyone else?” Shizune asked, curious.

“Hmm,” Sakura tapped her chin, “Well Jiraya.”

They both stared at her.

“You propositioned Jiraya? And the pervert didn’t leap at the chance?” Tsunade wrinkled her nose, unsure if she should be disturbed for both parts.

“I think he was worried about your wrath. And he may be an incurable pervert, but I think he thinks I’m too young,” Sakura shrugged. 

“You’re eighteen,” Shizune frowned, “On the younger side, but still an adult, as you have been for years.”

“I know,” Sakura lamented, “I have the feeling he’d be such a good time too.”

Tsunade wrinkled her nose again and waved a hand to dismiss that line of thought.

“Oh, and Danzo,” Sakura said slamming her fist into her palm, “That old bastard keeps avoiding me.”

Shizune and Tsunade stared at her aghast.

“Danzo?” Shizune choked. 

“Yeah. I thought maybe it would get him to loosen up a bit,” Sakura nodded. 

“And he’s been avoiding you?” Tsunade demanded.

Had her answer to the man’s hounding been sitting before her? If Sakura was Dazno-repellant, she wanted the girl in her office all day. 

“Like the plague,” Sakura sighed, “You try to make out with a man on the council table once and suddenly he avoids you.”

Tsunade looked at her, delighted, while Shizune stared in horror. 

.--.

“Oh,” Sakura squeaked.

Tsunade tucked the papers under her arm and peeked around the corner. Hmm. She wondered if this was the first time a guy had been concerned about her pleasure as such. Sakura panted and moaned and met her eyes across the room. Tsunade gave her a thumbs up. Sakura managed a grin before she was whimpering. Judging by how realistic her pleasure sounded, Iruka’s enthusiasm wasn’t to make up for lack of skill.

She left them to it, Sakura pressed to a wall and Iruka on his knees. It had obviously taken her a bit to convince the man, but it looked like it was worth it.

.--.

“You can’t send Sakura on a mission like this!” Naruto howled. 

“I’m Hokage. I can do whatever I want,” Tsunade snorted.

“Why are you yelling?” Kakashi sighed, taking the mission scroll. “It’s a simple information gathering mission.”

“They want Sakura to-to-” Naruto spluttered, flailing, “They want her to join a brothel!”

“I don’t see the problem,” Tsunade said dryly.

Then she spied a flush start above Kakashi’s mask. She repressed her glee.

“With me as her client?” Kakashi cleared his throat.

Sakura gave Tsunade a brief surprised look. Tsunade gave her a sly smirk. Sakura had been bemoaning the fact that despite getting Iruka she still couldn’t get Kakashi. Maybe this would help. 

“You can’t make her do this!” Naruto wailed. “You can’t taint sweet innocent Sakura!”

Tsunade gave Sakura an incredulous look. 

“Haven’t really done anyone my age,” she shrugged. “And he’s clueless.”

Naruto was still howling when Sakura dragged him and Kakashi from the room. 

.--.

“How did it go?” Tsunade asked as Sakura entered her office alone, dressed in a very elaborate kimono.

“Kakashi is harder to crack then I had thought,” Sakura admitted with a tone of defeat, “He told me he trusted my skills and abandoned me for the mission to go help with an emergency at the border.”

“You’ll get him one day,” Tsunade said, consolingly. 

“Hopefully,” Sakura sighed mournfully.

“Went okay other than that though? I know it was below your skill level but it was a honey-pot mission which you haven’t had to do before.”

“If you had assigned it to me a year or two ago I probably would have failed,” Sakura admitted candidly, “But now it was easy-peasy. Genjutsu for the civilians I didn’t want to sleep with, and well, the shinobi were hot so I didn’t bother with any tricks.”

Tsunade paused and replayed that sentence in her head.

“It was supposed to be a civilian brothel. Kakashi and you should have been the only ninja around,” Tsunade said, eyes narrowed.

“Ninja are everywhere now-a-days,” Sakura said flippantly. 

“Not in small out of the way trading villages they shouldn’t be,” Tsunade said flatly, “Especially not in the Country of Iron.” 

“People go on missions to distant places.”

“None of our shinobi were out there.”

“Never said they were ours.”

Sakura and Tsunade stared at one another. 

“Okay who?” Tsunade finally sighed.

A grin started to stretch across Sakura’s face. Tsunade got a bad feeling in her stomach.

“Please tell me it wasn’t a nuke-nin.”

Sakura stayed silent, grin stretching wider. 

“Dear lord,” Tsunade said, “I’ve let you become a monster.”

“A well sated one,” Sakura said dreamily, “I don’t think I will ever want Sasuke again.”

“…you didn’t,” Tsunade said flatly.

“I did,” Sakura cackled. 

“Uchiha Itachi, really?”

“He’s just so…pretty,” Sakura sighed happily.

“He is,” Tsunade did have to relent on that one, “But still a criminal.”

“A very talented criminal,” she chirped, “As was his partner.”

“You slept with Hoshigaki Kisame as well?!”

“I mean, it was like a two for one deal,” Sakura shrugged.

“I forgot you were in the brothel. You had to pretend to be a prostitute. That’s my bad, sorry,” Tsunade winced.

“It was no problem,” Sakura said, “I didn’t even charge those two. Though it think they may have seen through my disguise.”

“They are S-class shinobi. I’d be disappointed if they couldn’t ferret out a spy.”

“I mean, I also used my strength to overwhelm Kisame and pin him to the bed so I could fuck the daylights out of him,” Sakura shrugged, “I don’t think most Konoichi can do that let alone a civilian prostitute.”

“You broke you’re cover to fuck Hoshigaki Kisame,” Tsunade rested her face in her hands, “You could have died Sakura.”

“Naw. He was like a puppy with a crush after that. As soon as I had showed I could strong arm him he swore eternal devotion to me,” Sakura said nonchalant, “Said something about finally finding a real woman.”

Tsunade buried her face in her hands. This was going to cause problems, she just knew it. And she had no one to blame but herself. She should have known better than to turn Sakura out on the world. 

.--.

“What started this?” Tsunade asked after she had kicked the bushing man out of her office.

“Sleeping with Genma?” Sakura raised a brow as she adjusted her skirt, “I swear I told you I motivated him to stay for healing when I-”

“I mean the whole sleeping your way through the village thing,” Tsunade waved a hand as she avoided looking at the couch; she’d need a new one.

“Oh, that,” Sakura shrugged, “it started as a bet with Ino actually. She lost her virginity to some civilian and said it sucked. I said the man she slept with probably just sucked and wouldn’t be able to find her clit, let alone know what to do with it. She said I talked big for someone who was still a virgin. So we ended up tumbling in a bed and both our minds were blown. Then we talked a bit and decided to see if it was just the civilian boy or if it was most men you know. So we hit up a couple guys and well, most guys are age really do suck. They’ve got enthusiasm I’ll give them that, but they just don’t know what to do. So I hit up some older guys and bam! Realized if you pick the right partner it’s fucking awesome. And maybe I’ve got an addictive personality but damn if it isn’t a good way to spend some time. And if done right you can drag it out all night or have a quickie in the closet.”

“Why not just find a friend with benefits then,” Tsunade said, “if it was experience you were looking for you could have found one good one and trained him up.”

“I thought about that,” Sakura admitted, “But then I looked around and saw that everyone was just so…pretty. I just wanted a taste of everyone, so I decided fuck it, I’m a shinobi who can crush boulders with my bare hands, no one’s going to call me a slut to my face at least. And let me tell you; worth it.”

Tsunade snorted despite herself and clapped Sakura on the shoulder. 

“Well, as long as you’re staying safe,” she smiled.

“What do you take me for,” Sakura snorted.

Tsunade clapped her on the shoulder again.

“And if anyone bothers you,” Tsunade says, “Or doesn’t listen to a no, you let me know.”

Sakura raised a brow at her but there was a glimmer of fondness in her eyes as she smiled at Tsunade.

.--. 

Tsunade tried to look calm and dignified as she stamped her seal on the scroll. Across from her Kakashi was practically jittery as he watched with both eyes wide open, even the sharingan. Sakura signed next as witness.

“Well then,” Tsunade said crisply, “I declare you Husbands. You have a week off for your honey moon. You’re welcome.”

Gai gave a loud whoop and spun Kakashi into a hug. Kakashi sent Sakura a vicious glare and then levelled a softer look at his new husband. They both vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Tsunade made sure they were actually gone before she broke down in laughter.

“Did you see his face?!” She demanded.

Sakura grinned at her in return and cracked out a nice bottle of sake. 

“If I had to lose Kakashi to anyone,” Sakura said with blatant fake disappointment, “I’m glad it’s someone as loyal and loving as Maito Gai.”

“Did you know they were together?” Tsunade asked wiping tears of laughter out of her eyes.

“I thought Kakashi-sensei might be gay after the first couple of excuses for not falling for my flirting,” Sakura said, “Not because I think I’m irresistible or what-not, but because he always dashed off to Gai afterwards. And then a few weeks ago I heard Gai ‘consoling him’ when Kakashi complained about how relentless I was being. I cornered Gai after that and told him I’d stop because of my respect for gai. But Gai begged me not to. He was a tad guilty about it but he admitted Kakashi always ran to him after I bothered him enough and Gai quite liked it. Apparently, they’ve been dancing around this thing for like a decade! Stupid sensei. I guess I was what finally kicked him into gear and got him confronting his own feelings, and Gai’s.”

“Then it’s appropriate that you were their witness,” Tsunade cackled, “Lee’s gonna challenge you for beating him for that honor.”

“I quite like fighting Lee,” Sakura grinned, “And it will distract him while our sensei run off on their honeymoon.”

“Idiots all around me,” Tsunade sighed amused.

“To Idiots!” Sakura toasted.

They clinked their glasses and down the sake.

“I’m going to go track someone down to ‘console’ me for how terribly my sensei turned me away to fall into another man’s arms,” Sakura said, “Want to join me at the bar?”

“Stick around and finish the sake with me,” Tsunade said instead, “Who are you going after tonight.”

“Someone pretty,” Sakura said, “Any suggestions? People who need to relax? Anyone really good in bed?”

Tsunade swirled the sake in her glass and smirked. 

“Ever had a tumble with a Hyuuga?” she asked, “Those eyes really let them know a person inside and out.”

“Really?” Sakura asked, interested, “I do try to ignore my age-mates though and Neji’s too close, plus he’s pretty but meh. Makes things tense since many of them still haven’t grown up.”

“I was thinking of a different Hyuuga,” Tsunade grinned, “Hiashi’s been stiff all week and annoying me in meetings.”

“Well,” Sakura contemplated, “He is pretty. And it would amuse me to see Neji’s reaction to that.”

Tsunade raised her glass again and Sakura grinned as she clinked it.

“To idiots and pretty men,” Tsunade said.

“Cheers to that!”

The hangover they acquired was well worth it when Tsunade saw Hiashi sitting rather bonelessly in his council seat, a dazed look on his face and his impeccable hair slight disarrayed the next day. He even wordlessly agreed with a proposal Tsunade had been trying to pass against his vocal disagreement the past month. 

“You,” Tsunade told Sakura as she took minutes of the meeting, “are a dangerous weapon”

Sakura’s grin was quite proud.

.--.


	7. Divorcee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke pulls his disappearing act after Sarada is born but Sakura isn't the type of person to take that lying down. She's also tired of chasing him down.

Sarada was just over nine months old when Sasuke left. Sakura watched him pack his bag, listened to his empty words about a mission, and then watched him vanish from their front door. Sakura didn’t feel angry, not really, just disappointed. Mainly in herself for thinking things would be any different. He hadn’t even given her a goodbye kiss. 

The next day Sakura strapped Sarada to her back and went back to work at the hospital. She had been taking an extended maternity leave to play housewife but that was over now. It took less than a day to fall back into the rhythm of the hospital, even with a baby strapped to her back. 

“He shouldn’t be gone too long,” Naruto told her when he brought her lunch that first day, “He’s allowed to come back whenever and check back in as well.”

Sakura made some sort of noise that could have been agreement could have been derision. Sakura simply asked Naruto how his training was and he was off like a shot, complaining about the paperwork.

And that night Sakura went to the Hokage’s office, long after dark, and personally requested a set of forms. Kakashi, dressed in the Hokage robes and alone but for the flickering light and the hidden ANBU, didn’t bother asking if she was sure.

“I told him not to stay too long,” Kakashi said simply, “He chose the mission so I let him pick the length.”

Sakura gave him a look and he returned it evenly and she saw the same things reflected in his eyes that she knew in her heart.

“He could come home early,” she agreed blandly.

Sarada was fast asleep in her sling, a weight Sakura barely felt but a heat she was hyper-aware of. 

“Well, if you have any questions about how to fill those out, Iruka should know,” Kakashi flapped a hand.

“Thanks sensei,” she smiled.

“Not your sensei anymore,” he pointed out.

“Fine, Hokage-sama,” she teased, cracking her first smile of the day.

He rolled his eyes and she laughed at him, leaning over his desk to pat his cheek, planting a kiss on the other one.

“Don’t stay up too late,” she told him, “I’ll come help with the paperwork tomorrow.”

He sent her an open look of relief and she laughed at him as she shut the door and trudged home. Sarada didn’t make a fuss as she tucked her in the bed. 

“Seems its just me and you, squirt,” she told her sleeping daughter.

.--.

Sakura waited for the first letter from Sasuke before she started filling out the forms. 

Thing was, she still hadn’t received one after three months. So Sakura set the thought aside and picked up a pen. She was sort of surprised at how not-angry she was. But well, Sakura had been trained to feel only disappointment with Sasuke. She had begun to expect being left out. 

So Sakura put the pen to paper and filled out the forms. Then she waited for a letter. 

And at the six month mark she still had no word from him, so she picked Sarada up and made a trip to the Hokage’s office. Iruka was helping at the desk, filling out paperwork, and Sakura really could have went through the regular channels to file hers, but he was the top for all bureaucracy to do with ninja so she went to him. 

He read them carefully but they did not need any corrections. He stamped them grimly.

“For what it’s worth Sakura, I’m sorry.”

“For what?” she laughed, “Not to be rude Iruka-sensei, but you never had anything to do with this.”

“I know,” he sighed, “I just…I watched you all grow up and I wish…”

She just laughed and gave him a hug because he looked more upset than she had felt this entire time. Sarada laughed and grabbed at his hair over her shoulder and Iruka cracked a smile. 

That night when she left the hospital Naruto was there to sweep her and Sarada off to his apartment. Sai and Yamato and Kakashi sat around the table, food set out carefully but no Hinata in sight.

“She went to see her dad,” Naruto said when Sakura asked after his wife, “She took Boruto.”

Sakura nodded and they let her put Sarada to sleep in Naruto’s room before they poured a round of sake. Sakura was not upset when Sai congratulated her on dropping the extra weight, or when Yamato said he was happy for her. When Naruto and Kakashi looked a little sadder she laughed.

“I tried,” she told her boys, “and maybe I shouldn’t have but I did. I don’t regret that, but I won’t regret this either.”

“To divorce then,” Kakashi said.

Haruno Sakura, formerly Uchiha Sakura toasted that. 

.--.

“What do you think?” Naruto said anxiously. 

Boruto and Sarada were both playing on the blanket spread out across the grass, each happy to babble at one another and at their toys. 

“Why do you want to be Hokage Naruto?” Sakura asked simply, “Why have you always wanted to be Hokage?”

Naruto opened his mouth, then paused. 

“You always wanted the respect, the recognition,” Sakura answered for him, “But Naruto, you already have that.”

Naruto slumped.

“But,” he said in a quiet voice, “I said I wanted to be Hokage, wouldn’t it be going back on my dream if I didn’t?”

“You don’t have to drop the dream completely,” she smiled, “Just tell people you are putting it on hold for your family. Everyone will more than respect that.”

Naruto’s eyes found Boruto and she let him have his thoughts.

“Why the sudden worry?” Sakura asked finally.

“I’ve been thinking of it for a while,” Naruto admitted, “I just kept remembering how jiji never had time for Konohamaru or even Asuma. How he was always in that office and never at home. And I …I didn’t want to do that to Boruto and Hinata. And then, well you.”

“Me?” Sakura blinked.

“I was clinging to the dream because it was all I strived to do for so many years. But then I looked at you, how you got your dreams, how you became Sasuke’s wife and had a kid, and then I saw you divorce him. I would…I never expected you to do that Sakura. I thought you would stick with him forever.”

“And it’s a good thing I didn’t?” she raised a brow.

“Well, yeah,” he said with a look that said it was obvious, “He’s my friend but he’s a dick, and he definitely doesn’t deserve you if this is the shit he’s gonna keep pulling. It showed me that you can get your dream and if it doesn’t work out you can keep going.”

Sakura was startled into laughter. She threw an arm around Naruto’s shoulder and gave him a side hug and a wide smile. 

“Thanks Naruto. Now, go tell Hinata that you’re not going to accept Hokage for a bit and that you love her. I’ll go tell Kakashi he’s gotta keep that hat warm for a few more years.”

“Actually,” Naruto smiled softly, “Kakashi was the one to suggest I wait; that I take time for my family.”

“Sensei’s a smart man,” Sakura smiled. 

Naruto nodded and then they both stood, Naruto scooping up his son and showering him with kisses as Boruto shrieked with glee. Sakura picked Sarada up and her little girl beamed at her. Sakura felt her heart settle. 

Sarada and Sakura waved the boys off and then headed for the Hokage’s office.

“I hope you’re prepared to be my assistant for a bit longer,” Kakashi drawled as she wandered in.

“Ha! Make Naruto your assistant,” she smiled, “He got out of the job, but doesn’t mean he gets to escape this office that much.”

Kakashi smiled agreement but Sakura also dutifully took over half the role as Naruto took time with his family. Naruto had talked about his Hokage dream but Sakura knew that Naruto’s real dream had been a family. He’d tried to make Team Seven his family but they had been too young and angry, and while they were close now, Hinata and his son were his true family and Sakura did not begrudge him that. She was just so happy to see him smiling so widely with a little blonde boy in his arms and someone as devoted as Hinata on at his side. It was what Naruto deserved. 

.--.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fix-it for Boruto. Sakura doesn't just fall happily for Sasuke and then take all his bullshit like disappearing for years. A Naruto who spent so long trying to find happiness and family and who sees Sakura grasp her future also doesn't become the work-aholic ignore-his-kids dad.
> 
> Was gonna make it maybe Sakura/Kakashi with last scene being Sasuke reappearing to get sucker-punched by the fact no one put up with his bullshit


	8. Dump me over the Threshold (and other soft moments)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> KakashiXSakura

“Hello Sakura,” Kakashi eye smiled at her.

“Hello Kakashi,” she returned warmly. “How is your day going?”

“Oh quite well. Are you working?” he said, still smiling

“I have the day off. A day off from the hospital and training, so don’t try talking me into a spar,” she said good-naturedly.

“Ah,” he said. 

She raised a brow at the slouched man, slightly suspicious of his apparent good mood. He also had no book in hand. Instead his hands were shoved in his pocket. He even rocked back on his heel once and both her eyebrows rose. From Kakashi that was pretty much a blush and stammer from someone else. 

“You’re happy,” she accused. “Not just happy, excited.”

“Mah,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “I just had a few plans for the evening.”

“Good plans?” she asked offering him another smile.

Her former sensei didn’t answer, just smiled again and she chuckled. It wasn’t all that rare to see him in such a good mood these days what with the war over and peace finally sinking into the land. Sure he was still a bit of a deadweight sometimes, dragged down by memories of the past, but he was doing a lot better. And he always had a smile for her and Naruto. It was like they helped buoy him. 

“Were you visiting Naruto?” she asked.

“He’s busy with some task,” Kakashi flapped a hand before shoving it back in his pocket. 

Sakura new that was code for ‘Tsunade had him running ragged under the guise of Hokage training’. She grinned.

“I just came to see you,” Kakashi said suddenly.

She blinked in surprise at his freely offered explanation. Then she flushed just the slightest. Since the war, and even before, they had become friends. Good friends. They had the base of teamwork to build on, and then the base of the last two of team seven left in Konoha for a few years to bolster up a friendship. And then the war had cemented the lasting friendship between them. They had been good partners, but Sakura liked it better when they were not working, when they were not a mission. They were good friends who shared meals and books and conversation. They also sparred and talked and went to movies. Sometimes they crashed on the other’s couch when their own apartment was too empty. 

“Well don’t I feel special,” she joked lightly, closing the book on her lap to finally give him all of her attention. 

She gave the blanket she sat on a pat and he slumped down beside her, thigh against thigh. Sakura smoothed her shorts and set her book aside, leaning back on her hands to gaze out across the lake before her. It wasn’t really a lake, more of a giant pond, tucked back behind training ground 37. The grass clearing around it was quiet and filled with wildflowers at this time of year. Unless someone was training here Sakura found it relaxing in the sun, half shaded by the edge of trees with the scent of flowers in the air. 

“Did you have a purpose to your visit?” she asked curiously looking out across the sunlight scene. 

Kakashi stayed silent beside her, fingers resting on her blanket splayed. She let him have his silence knowing that is she was patient he would most likely answer eventually. And if he didn’t answer it was often because he didn’t have one and that was an answer in itself.

“I came to remind you,” he said abruptly after a long drawn silence. “To remind you that you are a very strong shinobi.”

The little girl in her flushed with pride and joy at that statement that fell honestly from his lips. The war-tempered konoichi in her meanwhile gave a very soft smile. 

“Thank you,” she said. 

“It’s not just a compliment,” he remarked lightly. “It’s a fact that sometimes you need to be reminded off.”

She glanced away at the honest in that statement as well. She felt a bit pathetic at times for how often she needed validation. But if left alone she would often start to gaze at the people around her and while Sakura was very strong, she could not hold up to Naruto or Kakashi. It wasn’t low self-esteem, it was just fact. When you surrounded yourself by powerful people sometimes you seemed so much smaller. 

“Is there a reason I need a reminder?” she asked slowly, both cautious and curious.

He was silent again and when ten minutes had passed in silence she gave up on getting an answer. Kakashi stood slowly after that, as lazy as a cat. 

“Just remember you ninja history classes,” he eye-smiled, “and above all, remember you are a very powerful shinobi.”

Then he was slouching off.

“Well doesn’t that sound ominous,” she muttered to herself, watching him wander off.

.--.

Kakashi showed up at her window late. Very late. Practically morning actually. Sakura was actually dead asleep before he alighted on the sill.

“Kakashi?” she mumbled as she squinted sleepily at him. 

“Yo,” he said clearing his throat softly.

She stared at him and he stared back.

“So,” she said, “Why are you at my window at…4am?”

“Just something I’ve been planning for a while,” he shrugged, glancing away.

He stuck out a hand as if offering her a hand up. She stared at it for a long moment but he said nothing else. Finally she took it. How could she not? She trusted him and he rarely did anything without a reason. Yes, sometimes that reason was being an idiot or a troll, but not usually at 4am. It wasn’t a mission or he would have said something instead of offering her a hand while she stood in shorts and a t-shirt. 

She took his hand and he tugged. He pulled her up and out her window and then gloved hands skimmed her leg. He picked her up bridal style and sleepy confused Sakura simply stared at him. 

“What the fuck?” she asked him.

He didn’t answer and instead used his foot to close her window. And then they were leaping through the air.

“I can walk you know,” She said.

He said nothing. She let him by mysterious as she looked at him. He wasn’t shaking, wasn’t twitchy, but she could tell he was nervous all the same. 

They leapt over a high wooden fence and landed in a dark but beautiful courtyard. A light was on past the veranda and the paper doors and Kakashi carried her towards it. He toed the door open and set her back on her feet just over the threshold. With a slight nudge he made her step fully inside. And then he shut the door, still outside, and she felt his presence pull back. 

Sakura blinked, dazedly, at the well lit traditional room. A low table in the middle was set with tea and three women sat at it rather calmly, all older than sixty and all wearing very nice kimono. She blinked at three women before her. The eldest, maybe eighty, tsked and pat at the seat next to her. Sakura sat. A cup was towards her while the other two made noises that could have been disgruntlement or annoyance to the first tsk. 

“That boy,” the eldest sighed, “always likes to be so mysterious.”

“He’s just shy,” one with a purple kimono shrugged.

“It’s going to get him in trouble one day though,” one with the glasses said, rolling her eyes.

“What’s going on?” Sakura asked slowly. 

“Drink your tea and just sit for a moment to regain your bearings,” the one in purple smiled kindly. “It always helps to just think for a bit.”

So Sakura did that. She hesitantly took the tea cup in hand, not worried in the slightest of poison or drugs and took a long drink. It was a refreshing crisp blend that left a bitter aftertaste on her tongue but it did indeed clear her head somehow. The four of them sat in silence at the low table for a few long moments, each woman sipping tea seemingly lost in their own world. 

When Sakura’s cup was empty the one with glasses filled it again with brisk sharp, elegant movement. 

“Can I ask who you are?” Sakura finally voiced.

“I’m Ume,” the eldest said. 

“I’m Tsunara,” uhe one in purple smiled.

“And I am Yukimara,” the one in glasses offered as she retook her seat.

“And we were all, at one time or another, part of the Hatake clan,” Ume said simply.

Sakura sipped her tea to hide her surprise and mulled over this for a moment.

“So Kakashi grabbed me from my bed, in the middle of the night and brought me to three of his relatives,” she said slowly.

“Relatives is a good term,” Tsunara nodded, “Though my connection is through my first marriage. I was married to his great uncle. I am now married to man under Hatake clan protection.”

“I was married to one of his cousins once removed,” Yukimara said, “And though I never remarried when he passed, I returned to my family and retook their name, whom all used to serve the Hatake clan.

“And I was born a Hatake, I am his great aunt, though I am married to a vassal of the Hatake clan,” Ume said. 

Sakura looked down at the cup in her hand brow furrowing. She dredged up the last things Kakashi had said to her before this morning. Remember ninja history. Remember you are a strong shinobi. Ninja History. Kidnapping her from her bed. All female relatives. What she assumed was the Hatake compound though looking quite disused and dusty.

Kidnapping. 

Female Relatives. 

Ninja history. 

Kidnapping.

Female Relatives.

Ninja hist-

“Oh fuck.”

She dropped her face into her hands, trying to take a deep breathe in through her nose. She breathed out once, shaky and sucked in another large breath. 

“Figured it out then dear?” Ume asked, not unkindly.

“I think so,” Sakura said, voice a bit higher then she would have liked. 

“Take a moment,” Yukimara said gently. “It can be a shock sometimes. I mean sometimes its expected all around, but I suppose not in your case.”

“It wasn’t,” Sakura said taking another deep breath. 

Sakura took a few deep breaths before she was ready to lift her head from her hands and pick up her cup again. She sipped at the tea, noting vaguely that she was trembling. She set the cup back down before she dropped it and made sure her breathing was still even as it could be. She didn’t look at the three women, just stared down at her tea. 

She needed a moment. She desperately wanted to excuse herself and step outside, away from the company of strangers to work herself out. But she knew that was not an option right now. Well….it was an option, but not a reversible one and she really needed to think on this for a few minutes. 

The line about her being a good shinobi suddenly jumped into her mind and she knew it for what it was now. It was a way to tell her that she could leave right now if she wanted. That these three old women, of whom at least two were civilians and one whom had very little training would not be able to stop her. Neither would Kakashi who she could sense further out at the gates of the compound. Though Kakashi wouldn’t stop her which had less to do with her power and more to do with the fact that if she left, that was her answer. 

Sakura took another deep breath and closed her eyes. Ok. She had to look at this logically.

In past decades, before the formation of villages, and even after for many, there had been a very popular way to secure a bride when a contract or arranged marriage was either not available or not encouraged. It happened often between rival clans and between even allied ones if the marriage was not going to be allowed for whatever reason be it strategic or monetary. Sometimes it was between two people mutually in love who wanted desperately to be together. Sometimes it was a way for a man to force a woman’s hand. Sometimes it was for strategic reasons. 

Whatever the reason, Bride Kidnapping had been popular, especially among ninja clans. 

Bride kidnapping always involved the man stealing a woman from her family home and taking her into his own home. He would leave her with female relatives who had to convince her to put on his house colors. She was expected to resist as it wasn’t a kidnapping if you went along with it, so even women who were in on the plans had to act as if they had been truly kidnapped; including wailing, crying, and resisting. If she truly did not want the marriage she often had to hold out until her family came to get her. Sometimes this involved the family demanding her return a few hours later, and sometimes it resulted in full out battles if between rival clans. If at any time she escaped or was released without wearing the man’s colors, she was unmarried and allowed to return home and the marriage would never happen. If she put on his clothing, they were in effect, married. 

Sakura took a deep breath and tried to get her mind around the fact she had been kidnapped like women of old. Kidnapped to be married. This didn’t happen all that often in Konoha these days. She hadn’t heard a story in at least a decade of it happening. It had been popular amongst the Uchiha before their massacre. And until about two decades ago had been common in the Inuzuka. Even the Hyuuga had a history of it. Many places still did it as well. Kumo having a high percentage of such cases. In fact when Hinata had been kidnapped as a child briefly they had tried to pass it off as a bride kidnapping despite the fact she was not a woman flowered (which made it void) and besides the fact it was obvious they just wanted her eyes.

“Would you like more tea?” Yukimara asked kindly, interrupting her thoughts.

“Please. I was not expecting this,” she said a bit helplessly, “Shouldn’t you also be convincing me to put on his clan colors, not just offering me tea.”

“At least you know the particulars,” Ume smiled, “And yes, but we thought this would be a better approach.”

“Why?”

“Because Kakashi would not have kidnapped anyone very likely to say no,” Tsunara chuckled, “Daft boy always overthinks and over plans things so much he is often assured of their outcome. He would not have kidnapped you if he wasn’t sure you were going to say yes. Despite that he’s probably outside agonizing over his actions and smacking himself worried you will actually turn him down.”

Sakura opened her mouth and then closed it again. She had a bunch of questions, but not for these women. She had them for Kakashi.

Ume reached down beside her and gently set a bundle on the table.

“Think it over clearly now dear. We are in no rush unless you are worried your father or house head will come barging in to demand you back.”

Sakura stared at the cloth done in what she assumed were Hatake colors. She didn’t even bother to explain her civilian parents would not have noticed her missing and if they did would assume it was ninja business. 

“Did you all get kidnapped as well?” she asked instead of saying anything of her family.

“Oh yes. It was quite fun,” Yukimara giggled. 

“It has been a Hatake tradition,” Ume smiled, “Hatakes rarely deal in contracts or arrangements. They preferred kidnappings but rarely are they done without some prior planning between the men and women. We are proud to say not one has been forced. The women kick up a fuss of course because it is expected, but anyone who did not truly want marriage was never kidnapped to begin with.”

“The tradition of course died out with the clan,” Tsuara sighed, “Kakashi is the last Hatake by name, besides those of us elders married into different clans. He has the clans under Hatake protection of course, and vassals sworn to the Hatake name, but most of that is just formality these days as he carries on with his own business and leaves us to run ourselves. He never showed an interest in any woman before either.”

Sakura wanted to ask a hundred other questions but her head was spinning with all the information those three had just given her. Instead Sakura took another shaky sip of tea and kicked her mind into overdrive.

Kakashi had kidnapped her with the intentions of making her his bride. This was huge. This was a big thing and she had a few hours to decide if she would accept or not. Apparently this was the norm for Hatakes. Apparently the Hatake were a bit bigger then she had assumed as well, existing as more than just Kakashi all alone. It was confusing though when she thought of him in his bachelor apartment and then trying to attach him to these three women and the subtle relationships that tied them together. 

She shook her head. She didn’t have time to wonder at the intricacies of the Hatake clan. That could come later. Instead she had to really think about Kakashi and the fact that for some reason he wanted to marry her. Her. Kakashi and her. Married. 

She took a long swig of tea, letting it burn down her throat. 

She loved Kakashi, she could admit that. He was her teammate. Her former sensei. A peer. They’d fought a goddamn war together. He was a man she looked up to and respected the hell out of and she knew all of that was returned. 

But there was no intimacy. 

There were moments when sexual tension fizzled between them, mostly during the war. In the adrenaline high post battle and in a few desperate moments of thinking they were never going to touch another being again except to kill. But they had never acted on those. Sakura had had a fleeting daydream about it every once in a while but she had once has a similar daydream about Gai and she would never marry him. 

But marriage didn’t always have to do with intimacy and love. Marriages didn’t always start with passionate love. Sometimes they just started with respect. Sakura already loved Kakashi in one way. She trusted him and she held him in high regard. He was one of hers, one of her confidents. He was closer to her then all but a very few people, mostly consisting of Naruto and Tsunade. 

But marriage. Was she ready for marriage? Did she want marriage? And with Kakashi?

Sakura had in the years past, come to the conclusion she was a konoichi. She was a ninja above all with loyalty to her village. It had been that loyalty that had spurred her onto training and gaining strength. It was that idea that had made her set aside her girlish daydreams of true love and marriage for a very long time. But she had never truly thought of living her life without marriage at some point. She had wanted to find a man and settle down. Have someone to return to at night, someone to tell her joys and griefs to. She wanted someone to respect her and love and cherish her. 

And she supposed it was hard not to see Kakashi in that position. If she married him it would not be a passionate love affair right away, and maybe even never. But there would be respect and trust and friendship. There would be loyalty and honesty. She could see Kakashi as her life long partner, in sickness and in health. 

It would not be a bad marriage. In fact it would probably turn out to be a great one. A healthy one. 

But she had no idea why he had done it now. She could sort of understand the kidnapping as tradition and of his way of avoiding her questions until she answered. She could even understand, in a way, why he had picked her. She was one of the very few people he trusted wholly and completely, and one of even fewer women in his life. But she couldn’t understand why he wanted it now. 

Also would it have killed the bastard to ask her out on a date first?

Sakura licked her teeth and followed that line of though, letting her face fold into a frown. Sakura wasn’t seeing anyone right now of course, despite Naruto’s hints that now that Sasuke was back she should get to asking. …Sasuke was a bag of cats she shouldn’t be opening right now. She still in some way loved her old teammate, and Naruto thought it was enough to marry him. But…but Sasuke had left them. Tried to kill them. Tried to kill _Naruto_. Sakura could forgive a lot, especially towards her. But no one fucked with her precious people.

So, Sasuke and Sakura were working through issues and had no time to see if that old torch she’d carried for him could be relit. It probably could but…

But Kakashi. 

Sakura thought of sitting so peacefully in the afternoon with him; of soaking up the sun and warmth and peace with him. She could not see herself doing that with Sasuke. Sakura could see herself enjoying a lot of things with Kakashi she couldn’t with Sasuke. Sure, as she’d said, marriage didn’t always start with passion, but Sakura wasn’t even sure some days if Sasuke really respected her and Sakura had grown into a woman who deserved respect. 

“Does…does Kakashi want children?” Sakura asked the women, finally looking up. 

They exchange glances.

“He has never mentioned it,” Ume finally asked, “I believe he truly doesn’t care either way, if he has them or not.”

So Kakashi was not doing this for an heir then (unlike Sasuke who’s main reason to get married young would be children). Actually…maybe it was that he wanted an heir. But not a child. Just someone to remember him as family and to take over his so called clan if he died in a mission. A wife could be that heir. But that wasn’t Kakashi’s style. He didn’t care about his family name. He could have just listed her in his will. 

Maybe…maybe Kakashi just wanted a wife. Maybe he wanted a wife like she wanted a husband. Someone to curl up with at night. Someone to laze with on warm summer days. Someone to return to every time. Someone to respect and cherish and love. The idea that he wanted that, and he wanted Sakura to be that someone made her cheeks flush and her heart beat a quicker tempo. 

The worst thing was she would not know until she answered either yes or no. 

Sakura sighed and drained the rest of her tea. 

She wanted a husband, but she hadn’t been prepared for this abrupt proposal. She loved Kakashi, but didn’t know if it would evolve into an intimate love. She wished the bastard could have done this normally and asked her one a few dates first, could have talked to her. But no matter how close they got, no matter how much calmer Kakashi was, he was still terrible at communication. It was one of his flaws but she loved him despite it. Usually at least.

‘You are a very strong shinobi’. She mulled these words. While she couldn’t very easily divorce Kakashi in this case, she could still live separately from him if it fell apart. But if she was being honest with herself, she could not see this falling apart. They were well paired and already had a good foundation for marriage even if she had never considered it before. It would not be a hardship to be married to Kakashi. And she had a feeling intimacy could grow between them. He was not an unhandsome man and she was not without her charms. 

Sakura rolled the teacup between her hands. 

She could leave now though. Knowing Kakashi he would never bring it up again, instead pretending it had never happened. He would not hold a grudge, he would let her walk away with no consequences. She doubted anyone knew she was here besides these three and she had a feeling they would hold their tongues. She could walk out, and one day if she truly wanted to pursue Kakashi, she could turn around and do it in the modern civilian style of dates and flowers. 

Sakura set her teacup down very gently and reached for the middle of the table. She lifted the bundle of cloth and let it unroll into a long kimono of dark blue and slate grey silk. 

Kakashi and her. Married. She took a deep breath. 

“I haven’t worn a kimono in a while,” she said standing. “I’m going to need some help putting it on.”

They all beamed at her and stood with her. This wasn’t a bad choice. And it would only take some work to make it a great one. But hell, all relationships took work. 

.--.

Sakura smoothed the front of her kimono down, admiring the workmanship that had went into it. She wasn’t even surprised it fit her perfectly as she ran a finger over the embroidered splash of the Hatake blue at the corner of the sleeve. 

Ume tsked out something as she ran a hand through Sakura’s hair. They had insisted she shower first and she had been led to a small dusty bathroom that groaned when she turned on the old taps. The water had come out tainted with rust for the first few moments and then clear and she had soaked in the tub. There had been a fresh towel waiting her at least and Ume had handed her a bottle of soft lotion and perfume as well as Sakura dried off. They were a smell that reminded her of her grandmother but they weren’t terrible so she put them on. Then all three had helped her into the kimono, wrapping her up in the grey and blue silk very carefully. Finally they had sat her down back at the table and Yukimara had fetched the snacks they had brought with them.

Sakura was now snacking on a pear while Ume twisted her hair up and back, leaving a few pieces loose around her face, but pinning the rest. Then she slid the headscarf up and over her head. It was a snow white color, the color of a marriage veil and, Sakura thought that while it clashed with the kimono it was also beautiful. 

“Oh you looked beautiful,” Tsunara sighed, “Reminds me of my kidnapping.”

“Less noisy,” Ume chuckled.

“She did scream quite a bit,” Yukimara laughed, “Took the part about acting resistant a bit too far.”

“It was fun,” Tsunara grinned, “Also, if you remember, my husband kidnapped me in only my underwear and I was a bit annoyed.”

Sakura bit her lip to contain a giggle. She was amused but so nervous any noise she made right now would be a tad hysterical. 

“There. You look perfect,” Ume smiled.

“Thank you,” Sakura cleared her throat softly, “What…what do I do now?”

They all exchanged looks again. Sakura waited nervously.

“Now we go meet your husband,” Yukimara smiled gently, softly, “If you want to be formal, he will introduce you to your clan head as his bride. That step can be skipped though, and usually is in the case of hostility between clans.”

“Probably best to skip that,” Sakura agreed. 

They led her down the dusty halls of the Hatake clan manor and finally out into the fort courtyard. The sky was lit up by the rising sun and Sakura caught sight of Kakashi immediately, slinking about in the shade of the outer wall of the manor that acted as a fence. He caught sight of her nearly in the same moment and she watched in the dim light as his eye flew wide and he stilled.

Sakura stepped down the house steps carefully and made her way towards him, leaving the three women on the porch. Kakashi didn’t move a single inch as she made her way over, frozen like a statue as he watched her. 

“Hello,” she said quietly into the din.

He didn’t respond, merely swallowed. She reached out her hands and he automatically took them, holding them gently. 

“This isn’t something you can easily back out of Sakura,” he said, his voice a croak. 

“No, I suppose not,” she agreed.

“You can still change your mind."

“Not really,” she smiled, “Now, hello Husband.”

“Hello Wife,” he returned, eyes fluttering shut as he squeezed her hands softly. 

She smiled up at him, heart already feeling lighter. Yes, this was not a bad decision at all.

Then a knock rang out. Sakura blinked, the moment interupted and turned to look at the compound gates. Kakashi stared at them as well as a second knock rang out. 

“This doesn’t seem like the place people come looking for you,” she remarked caught off guard. 

Kakashi frowned and headed for the gate, one hand slipping from hers, but the other holding tight. Sakura squeezed back and followed him. He lifted the bar and swung the gate open. Sakura blinked in surprise at the sight of Tsuande. Her mentor was dressed, for once, in the full formal Hokage robes, done right up to the neck, hat set gently on her head. Her face was solemn and her demeanor icy as she gazed at them. Just behind her stood Naruto in official apprentice robes as well, eyes wide and hand clamped over his mouth as if he had been warned to be silent but didn’t know if he could manage. 

“Hatake Kakashi,” Tsunade greeted, tone flat, “I have come to retrieve the daughter of my house, Haruno Sakura.”

Sakura blanked momentarily. Then her throat closed up and treacherous tears pressed at her eyes. She blinked them away, swallowing thickly as she stared at her mentor. Tsunade did not look at her, but kept her stony gaze pinned on Kakashi. 

“Haruno Sakura has been folded into the Hatake clan. She is now Hatake Sakura, my wife. She cannot return with you,” Kakashi replied, tone formal as he etched a very short bow. “We shall care for and cherish the former daughter of your house and she shall not know unkindness in our home.”

Silence ruled for a long moment and Sakura squeezed Kakashi’s hand a little harder. Naruto was still watching wide eyed and silent, eyes darting between all of them as he looked as if he wanted to blurt something out. 

“Congratulations Hatake Kakashi and Sakura. May you clan flourish. But know that if Sakura, former daughter of my clan, ever wishes to return to us, she will be welcome,” Tsunade said, bowing her head back. 

Sakura bowed alongside Kakashi to the formal greetings. Then she let her hand slip from his and stepped into Tsunade’s embrace.

“Give me the word and I will put my fist through his face,” Tsunade said blandly, squeezing her.

“Thank you,” Sakura murmured. “But I can do that myself if need be.”

“That’s my girl,” she said proudly. 

Sakura stepped back and shot Naruto a narrow eyed glare in warning. He kept his mouth shut but his eyes were still wide with surprise as he hugged her. 

“We can talk later, but if you ruin my wedding day I will hurt you,” she said half amused, half in warning. “We can talk tomorrow and god help you if I find you told anyone.”

Naruto finally grinned, hugging her tight but keeping his mouth shut. They had taught him in the past year that it was best to keep his mouth shut if he wasn’t sure what he should say. Tsunade’s threats on the same matter helped him hold his tongue more these days. 

Sakura and Kakashi bowed them away again, watching as Tsuande swept off down the street, Naruto scrambling to follow her in their constricting formal robes. 

“Well,” Kakashi said into the silence, “I don’t know what to do. I hadn’t planned this far ahead.”

Sakura laughed at the admission and took his hand in hers again.

“Now we go break back into my parents’ house so I can grab my things.”

“Sounds good,” he eye-smiled at her.

.--.

“I think that is everything,” Sakura said looking about her room. 

“This is all you’re taking?” He raised a brow, sweeping his eyes across the room as well. 

“Yes,” she shrugged. “That’s all mine, the rest technically belongs to my parents I would say.”

Sakura glanced at the large chest at his feet, smiling fondly. It was a tradition from her Mother’s line, back from when they had lived in the far reaches of Kusa once long ago. The chest had been made at her birth and then she had slowly filled it with linens. Everything from sheets to towels to washcloths. She had helped make most of them, or at the very least embroidered them. It was enough for a newly wed couple to fill their home. Stacked in the trunk on the linens were sealing scrolls with all her books and scrolls along with some sealed scrolls of her ninja gear. She had taken all of her ninja gear and clothes, but left her regular clothes in the closet (all but what Ino had gifted her). She left everything from her desk to her comforter on her bed to her alarm clock and lamps. Everything that her parents had bought her she left. It was not that she did not like them, but she had been raised in a traditional civilian manner. When she married, she had been raised to believe, she would only take her necessities and her dowry, leaving behind everything of her parents. 

It was one of the reasons, years ago, that she had decided to enter the academy. Ninja she had learned young, did not conform to civilian ideas of marriage and home. Sure the woman was still expected to have kids in a clan and raise them, but she was also expected to be a strong independent woman. And ninja who did not live in a clan often had freedom civilian women would never dream of. Even after learning of Bride-Knapping she had known that as a ninja she would have a lot more choice in her marriage then if she had been a normal civilian woman like her parents had wished.

Even though her parents had hoped she would stay a civilian, would change her mind and go back to school of settle down, they had loved and supported her. Her father smiled so happily when she told him she was becoming a medic-nin despite the fact he wanted her to be a house-wife away from violence. Her mother had been so proud when she heard who Sakura was mentoring under despite the fact she wanted Sakura to find a nice young man and settle down. They were proud of her and loved her dearly she knew, but they were civilians themselves and had been raised and lived thinking their daughter would marry a man of their choosing and be fulfilled as a house-wife. 

Sakura did not know how they would take her marriage to Kakashi, into a ninja clan, and to a man who could not inherit their business. But she knew to show she was serious, she would have to treat it like they would have treated a civilian marriage. She had to leave her things, leave her parent’s home, and never complain of it. She would have to put up a front of being a dedicated woman who cooked, cleaned, and worshipped the ground Kakashi walked on. It would be simple enough to pretend and it would most likely please her parents.

“You sure?” Kakashi asked, pulling Sakura from her plans and thoughts, “We can make another trip.”

“I’m good,” she smiled, wondering if he understood why she was leaving everything. 

She picked up the small framed photo of Team Seven off of her nightstand and gently added it to her trunk before snapping the lid shut. 

“Grab one end would you. It’s not heavy, just awkward.”

“Not heavy, she says,” he muttered as he hefted the one end.

She grinned at him and they silently maneuvered out her window. She thanked the fact it was big enough to fit a trunk and quietly shut it behind her as Kakashi stood awkwardly on the wall, holding the trunk so it wouldn’t fall. When it was shut she nodded and they both leapt from the wall silently and in sync. It was a trip of about ten minutes through the roof tops of Konoha, each of them holding onto her trunk. 

Kakashi led her to the apartment doors instead of a window and Sakura landed silently, her new kimono not even rumpled. They were quiet as they slipped into the building. The sun had risen but it was still a fairly early hour. Kakashi dug in his pouch for a key and unlocked his apartment door, slipping in ahead of her. 

“Let’s set it in the living room,” he said leading her past the small kitchen and down the hall. 

Sakura was used to his apartment, but not used to maneuvering a decently large trunk through it. They got the trunk into the Livingroom without dinging up any of the walls and she tucked it between his bookshelf and couch. When that was done she flopped down onto his couch the long way with a sigh. 

Kakashi sat beside her, lifting her feet so he could take a seat. He flopped them back across his lap and pulled out a familiar orange book. They would have to talk about living arrangements, about whether they would be staying here or moving to the Hatake manor or moving to a bigger place. But for now, newly married and tired from such an early morning, Sakura relaxed. The easy way the both flopped down in silence felt natural.

Sakura slowly unpinned the veil that had been put in earlier. She ran her fingers over the fine white cloth slowly, impressed with the stitching. 

“Where did you get this?” She asked curiously.

Kakashi’s eyes flickered over to her and the veil she held. 

“It was my grandmothers. My mother wore it when she accepted my father’s proposal as well.”

Sakura nodded faintly and very carefully folded the white cloth. Then her stomach gave an embarrassingly loud growl.

“I think you owe me breakfast,” she said.

“Fair enough,” he said, snapping his book shut, “Though we will have to go out. I have very little in the fridge.”

“We’ll have to solve that later, but going out now sounds good,” she said, rolling off the couch. 

He tucked his book away and waved at the door. Sakura pulled the sandals on that she had just pulled off and waited for Kakashi to tap his own on. 

“Lead the way,” she smiled.

“Are you okay dressed like that?” he asked hesitantly.

She blinked down at the Hatake colored kimono. 

“Yes,” she said simply.

He cracked a brief smile and then slipped out the door. She followed him as he walked leisurely for the stairs and instead of heading up for the roof he headed down the stairs and out the front door. 

.--.

Sakura hesitantly brushed the banner aside and stepped into the small entrance way. Kakashi was already wandering towards the bar and Sakura glanced around the tiny narrow restaurant. There was a total of four tables, two against each wall, with the bar/counter at the end. Kakashi was leaning over the empty counter and calling into the back where a scuffle echoed. 

Sakura stood hesitantly at his side as he slouched and waited. A short elderly man came bustling from the back, a scowl on his face. Said scowl only deepened as he saw Kakashi. He stopped to rest his hands on his hip as he glared at Kakashi. 

“What are you doing here Hatake? You know we don’t open yet,” he scolded.

“Ah, well,” Kakashi smiled, rubbing the back of his head in a familiar sheepish manner. “My wife was quite hungry and I know of nowhere better to go.”

“That does not excuse the fact we are clo-” The man’s mouth abruptly snapped shut. 

Then he stepped around Kakashi to look at her. Sakura met his gaze boldly, giving him as a much of a look over as he did her. His eyes lingered on her kimono. Then he broke into a wide beaming grin.

“This is a cause for celebration!” he declared, “Hatake, finally married and settled! With a beauty as well! Come, com, sit, sit.”

Sakura let him usher her into one of the four small tables.

“What do you like, dear?” He smiled at her. 

“I’ll eat anything,” she smiled back at him. “If Kakashi comes here regularly everything must be good.”

The elderly man puffed up and nodded before spinning on his heel to give Kakashi a sharp look.

“Sit down and be polite to your bride.”

Kakashi held a hand up in surrender and did as he was told.

“And we will have words about not inviting me to the wedding,” the man shot Kakashi a glare. 

“There wasn’t one,” Sakura spoke up. “Can’t say I’m surprised what with how lazy he is.”

“I stole her,” Kakashi said sagely, nodding. 

There was a moment.

“A bride kidnapping!” the man said gleefully. 

All the noise had drawn his two assistant cooks out and for a few minutes it was all excited chatter. Finally Sakura and Kakashi were left in relative silence as the cooks got busy on their ‘congratulations feast’. 

“You know the elder man quite well then?” she asked, curious as she leaned back in her chair. 

“Ah….I didn’t introduce you two did I?” Kakashi winced.

“Not at all,” she said, amused. 

“His name is Atsuki. My father gave him the funds to start this business. My father had a weakness for sushi and Atsuki had been only an apprentice, looking to get his own shop so my father gave him the funds. He never got a chance to pay my father back before my father died, so he tries to pay me back.”

“And you refuse,” she read easily.

“Well, there is no need for debts to the dead,” Kakashi shrugged.

“I bet you he does not let you pay for any food here though.”

“Not even the smallest piece,” Kakashi said mournfully. “I make sure to tip well instead.”

Sakura laughed and then turned to smile as one of the assistants came out with a tea set, setting both of them up. They shared a few minutes of comfortable silence. When the food started to come out in came out in small portions, all different kinds of sushi and sashimi and a variety of other things including fresh miso soup. 

“This is wonderful,” Sakura moaned as she ate a piece of tuna sashimi, feeling the meat melt on her tongue.

Kakashi smiled at her, fingers going to hook up around his mask. Sakura automatically politely averted her eyes, looking at her own food instead of his face. A moment later she felt foolish for doing so. He was her husband now and she could look at his face. But still, she kept her eyes averted respectfully. He had not invited her to look and she was waiting for that permission first. 

They were getting their second serving when the first customer stepped into the small restaurant. Sakura felt Kakashi’s subtle genjutsu immediately layer itself over his face to make it appear he wore a mask even as he ate. She also felt one settle over herself, mostly her hair and face. She gave him an amused quirk of her brows and he returned a minuscule shrug, his own grin twitching. Sakura knew when Kakashi was messing with people so she did not disrupt the genjutsu that was so subtle it was a whisper to her senses. 

The man walked up to the counter and ordered quickly, the tone suggesting this was a regular occurrence. Once the order was in, he lazily turned and headed for them. Sakura made sure she looked as if she was engrossed in her food, not bothering to look up at Shiranui Genma. 

“I didn’t know you existed before 9am Kakashi,” Genma greeted them. 

“Hello to you to Genma,” Kakashi said lightly.

“And out with a friend even,” Genma said, looking over at Sakura.

She ducked her head so he couldn’t see her smile under his curious look.

“Shiranui!” Atsuki yelled, “Don’t bother Kakashi and his new bride!”

Genma’s senbon clattered against the floor as his jaw dropped. 

“And don’t gape at her! Its unseemly!”

Genma seemed rooted to the spot.

“Yes Genma,” Kakashi said with a smile, “Its unseemly to gap. Shoo.”

Genma fell back in a daze, eyes still locked on them.

“He even did it properly and stole her,” Atsuki nodded as he handed Genma his order, “Its such a pleasure to see young couples blossom.”

Genma took his food and then glanced once more at them before leaving at a run.

“He’s going to try to start some drama,” Sakura remarked with a smirk as she popped a piece of fish into her mouth. 

Atsuki and Kakahsi both gave her sly grins and she laughed.

.--.

.--.  
Sakura awoke slowly, the soft warmth of sunlight warming her back and the feeling of another body warming her front. Sakura opened her eyes slowly, sleepily and found Kakashi’s face close to hers, tucked on the same pillow. She breathed slowly, and simply watched his sleeping face for a moment. It was not a new thing for him to be comfortable enough around her to sleep soundly and she enjoyed that trust for a minute. 

Finally she rolled over, illogically comfortable crammed onto the small twin mattress with Kakashi against the wall. She stretched slightly, the warm sun filtering in the window warming her and the quilt she was laying on. The afternoon heat made the room cozy and the sun made her lazy as she glanced out at the clear sky. 

….

.--.

Sakura heard the loud knock through the compound, the echoing seals sending the noise from the front gate all the way to the veranda in the inner courtyard. She approached the gate curiously, wondering who knew to seek her out at the Hatake mannor. Shining teeth and green met her eyes.

“Gai!” she greeted, startled. 

….(Gai is supportive and weepy of course)

.--.

“I have a mission for you two,” Tsunade said blandly.

Sakura raised a brow at her teacher. Tsunade gave her a bland smile and Sakura knew to be worried. That was Tsunade’s scheming face.

“…ah?” Kakashi said with a certain amount of wariness. “Together?”

“Just the two of you,” Tsunade nodded, sliding a scroll towards them.

When Kakashi made no move to pick it up Sakura took it, flicking open the seal to read the contents. Her eyebrows rose further and she tried to repress the smile that tried to stretch across her face. 

“A mission?” Sakura snorted.

“It’s a valid mission,” Tsunade smirked finally. 

“Thank you then, Hokage-sama, for giving us this opportunity to prove our strength as your loyal ninjas. We will complete this to the best of our abilities,” Sakura said, sketching a bow.

“Dismissed,” Tsunade grinned.

Kakashi followed her silently out of the office. He followed her all the way home silently too.

“Do I want to know where we are going?" he finally asked as the door shut.

“Just make sure to pack formal wear,” she smiled.

He looked very disheartened by that and sighed.

(Honeymoon! Tsunade sends them on a cruise. It’s a murder mystery but more on the level of genin so they get to enjoy the rest of the time together). 

.--.

Sakura felt her breath settle and stay in her chest as she stared up into bright mismatched eyes. Kakashi’s gaze was far away as he looked at her, a soft content smile on his lips. He brushed a thumb across her cheek, just under her eye and Sakura froze like a startled deer.

It was such an intimate moment, on some deep level and Sakura didn’t want to move lest she scare him away. 

……(First intimate moment, just a chaste kiss. I want them to start sweetly.)

.--.  
.--.  
.--.

NOTES: Just newlywed Kakashi and Sakura that’s soft and sweet. Sakura who’s always been a romantic (Kakashi too) and Kakashi deliriously happy with this chance. Sasuke bows out gracefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just an unfinished soft story. 
> 
> Bride-Kidnapping is a phenomena in a few cultures around the world still practiced today and I mashed some of them up/conformed them to ninja life.


	9. Sugar Daddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Team Seven almost drives Sasuke into insanity in the first week by being too Loud. He breaks in an odd way, but in a way that is nothing but good for the future of Team Seven and Konoha. AKA Sugar Daddy Sauske. Anything to make Naruto less orange.

Sasuke had been on Team seven for all of two days and he already feels stressed out. 

Sasuke was once a very happy, cheerful child with a wide grin and a tolerance of people. And then his older brother had murdered everyone he had ever known and destroyed Sasuke in the process. Sasuke had retreated inwards, become a dark, quiet, sullen child shaped by trauma and grief. Sasuke had been lost that day, his sense of self and worth shattered by the one person he had loved more than anything in the world. Many would have crumbled never to rise again. But Sasuke’s instincts had pushed him to survive and he had done so, piecing himself back together in a caricature of the old Sasuke. 

Sasuke had glued himself back together, piece by piece in the quite isolation of the Uchiha grounds surrounded by memories and the dead. And if parts of that grief and parts of those ghost had got caught in his edges, well it was too late to pull them out without shattering him again. 

The problem was Sasuke had done this in isolation. With his family dead and no friends, Sasuke had been left alone and it had changed him. He no longer smiled, was quite sure he didn’t remember how, and he didn’t know how to talk to people. 

When he had emerged from his empty clan compound back to school, the event that shaped his entire world had already passed from the news and none of his classmates noticed. The girls started to swoon over how dark and mysterious and cool he was, ignoring the way he trembled and the way there was an endless scream in his head. The boys took his silence as arrogance and wanted little to do with him, never noticing the way he couldn’t focus his gaze sometimes. Civilian shop keepers offered empty condolences, not really sure what to say or do. The shinobi watched him carefully, distrustfully and he couldn’t blame them. He felt like lashing out most days and sometimes it took an iron clad will to hold his screams in. 

So Sasuke was pushed away from people while still held up to this standard of the Uchiha, never mind there was no one left to teach him the skills to meet this standard.

So Sasuke spent days upon days in silence but for his own screams and the murmurs of the dead that rang in the empty spaces. Sasuke forgot what it was like to actually trust people, partly due to his split from most people and mostly due to the fact the one man he had trusted had taken everything from him on nearly every level. Sometimes Sasuke forgot how to speak to people, unsure of if his voice would work. Sometimes Sasuke forgot to communicate, forgot how to socialize, and convey thoughts and feelings. He was too blunt, too sharp, too honest and many took it as arrogance. Sasuke merely didn’t know what to say and every day was another step away. 

To be honest, Sasuke was in no way sane, in no way well adjusted, in no way a normal young boy anymore. Sasuke was crazier than a bag of cats and it was long past the point of no-return. So Sasuke had started to live with it, knowing his life was a very different one than most of the people he saw. He had accepted that he would be alone forever.

And then the academy told them Konoha was famous for its team dynamics. Told them that solo missions were exceedingly rare and that most of their career would be spent with working with people. And Sasuke had floundered. His first introduction to this was his genin team after graduation.

His genin team was a disaster. 

To be honest, Sasuke thought Naruto might be the best of all of them. Sakura was obsessed. She was screechy, had a hair-trigger temper, flipped between moods at the drop of a hat, and dogged his steps relentlessly. Kakashi was obviously a skilled jonin but he was obviously broken as well. Sasuke could see the signs, see the glint in his eye. Could see it in the way he read porn in public and couldn’t drudge up the energy to make it on time or even stand up without a slouch. 

Naruto on the other hand was simply loud, a bit hyper, and had an inferiority complex. 

Sasuke didn’t even bother trying to get along. It would be useless.

At least that had been at first. But watching them bumble and almost fail a D-rank, painting a fence of all things, was making him twitch. It was legitimately making Sasuke stressed. Naruto’s eye-searing orange coat had always been an eyesore but now it was actually slowly killing Sasuke. Naruto couldn’t sit still and was jumping all over the place with a clone trying to finish his section first. And Sasuke kept flinching at the flashes in the corner of his eyes. From the other side Sakura was giggling, sending him looks, and every flash of pink made him cringe. 

Sasuke was going to crack before the end of the week and start murdering everything in pink and orange. And it was only the second day. 

Sasuke could have ignored it. Could have went home, meditated and calmed himself down. In one world Sasuke did do this and became a very patient man who simply ignored his teammates. That is not this world.

In this world Sasuke went home, paused at his door and then turned and walked to what had once been his neighbor’s house. He dug in their closet, ignoring the screaming in his head, and made a decision.

The next day he went straight up to Naruto. 

“Here,” Sasuke said.

Naruto fumbled, blinking at him confused but grabbed the dark bundle. He unrolled it cautiously and simply stared at the dark grey coat with little white fans buttons up the front and dark stripes around the sleeves. 

“What?” Naruto asked dumbly. 

“Your orange is…” Sasuke paused, about to say eye-gouging, “A dead giveaway. Too bright. You need to blend in better.”

Naruto seemed shocked still and didn’t have the wits to burst into shouts about insults to his favorite color and coat. 

“Um…is it yours?” Naruto asked, peering at the buttons of the Uchiwa fan.

“In a way,” Sasuke said, “It’s a …gift for you.”

Sasuke held his breath and tried to act like he wasn’t waiting for shouts and to have it thrown back in his face. 

“A gift?” Naruto echoed, a tenor of wonder in his voice.

Sasuke frowned, unsure of the reaction that went against everything he knew of the loud boisterous Naruto. Naruto gently stroked the coat, feeling the quality and the softness. Sasuke waited and did not picture his cousin wearing said coat only once before he died. 

“Is…is it okay? I mean, it has your clan symbol?” Naruto finally got out, peering at Sasuke uncertain.

“…You’re on my team,” Sasuke finally grunted, caught off guard by the consideration in that question, “And I say you can.”

Anything to get rid of that godforsaken orange, Sasuke though, low on sleep and patience and maybe even sanity at this point. 

Naruto suddenly beamed at him, all crinkled eyes and flashing white teeth, and it was such a smile of happiness Sasuke actually lost his breath, blinded. No one had smiled at him like that…ever. No one had ever smiled at him so happy and thankful and bight and carefree. Even his family’s smiles had been soft muted things, not this exuberance. 

Naruto wordlessly shucked his orange coat and slid the jacket on. It was a size too big but Naruto would grow into it. He took care to do up the buttons, a smile stuck on his face and grinned at Sasuke.

“Thanks Sasuke! You’re not so much of a bastard I guess!”

“Don’t call Sasuke a bastard!” Sakura yelped, arriving.

Before she could say another word Sasuke spun and shoved a bundle in her arm as well. She froze, eyes wide. 

“A gift,” Sasuke muttered. 

Sakura trembled, staring at him and then hurriedly looked at it. It unrolled into dark kimono top, all blacks and dark purples with large hibiscus flowers blooming across it. A small hair accessory fell as well and Sasuke snatched it up before it hit the ground. 

Sakura stared at it wide eyed.

“It was my cousins. It’s a battle kimono that’s layered with wire mesh,” Sasuke muttered, unsure of her staring, “It…it would look good on you?”

It was more of a question but she didn’t seem to hear as she went bright pink with a blush that clashed horribly with her hair.

“This is for you too,” Sasuke held out the hair piece.

“I…I don’t know how to wear it,” Sakura squeaked. 

“Put the top on first.

Sakura hurried to obey, ducking behind a tree to shuck her red dress and pull on the short dark kimono. It was the same length as her former red dress and closed with a loose dark purple sash that hung down the front more like a gi belt. Sasuke hesitated when she emerged beaming but ultimately beckoned her forwards. She sat obediently and Sasuke reached for her hair. His fingers shook just the slightest but she didn’t seem to notice. Sasuke kept his eyes focused on the pink, reminding himself it was in no way similar to Itachi’s dark hair. He wound her hair, a tad inelegantly, in a tight high bun and tied it as well as he remembered. A few locks were to loose, but the cloth held her hair gathered well enough. The small silk cloth held all her bun under it and he tied it shut, trapping her hair. Then he slid the pin with small dangling purple glass flowers into the covered bun. Now the only loose hair was the two small locks that framed her face. Most of the pink was pulled tight and tucked under purple silk. 

Sakura pulled a small hand mirror from a pouch and looked at herself wide eyed.

“You look beautiful Sakura!” Naruto cheered. 

“T-thank you Sasuke,” she squeaked a as she looked at him awed. 

“It suits you,” Sasuke managed. 

Luckily Kakashi arrived not a moment later, saving him from any awkward date requests. He made no comment on the wardrobe change and simply told them they had a mission. Sasuke noted his teammates sent him looks throughout the rest of the day but they were more subdued. 

And there was no eye-searing orange and fluttering pink to distract him. Sasuke counted it as a win.

And when they parted that night, Naruto and Sakura thanking him again, Sasuke felt something in his chest warm. Something small and buried deep that made have been the child Sasuke should have been, stirred and made Sasuke stare after his teammates, enjoying how they looked so pleased and thankful for his gifts.

.--.

“Sasuke,” Sakura said tentatively the next day.

Sasuke glanced at her, noticed the way she shuffled her feet but looked up at him with wide still awed eyes. She held out her hands and tucked gently in them was the flower hair ornament.

“I-I can’t accept this,” she cleared her throat, “I mean, my mother says the whole outfit is expensive, but she said that this ornament is an antique and m-more expensive than a month’s worth of her income!”

Naruto was staring wide eyed at the ornament. 

“My mother said the craftsmanship is on par with what the Daimyo would buy,” Sakura stuttered out.

Sasuke shrugged and did not take it back.

“The ornament was my cousins. She worked in the court a few times and it was gifted to her.” 

“T-then it’s an antique and an heirloom,” she stared wide eyed, “Sasuke, I can’t accept it. It’s too much.”

Sasuke frowned, brow furrowing and crossed his arm.

“It’s a gift,” Sasuke repeated, “I have no use for it. It’s yours now.”

She stared wide eyed, looking at him with some sort of awe. When she made no move to pull her extended hands back he finally reached out, took it from her hands and then tucked it back in her hair. He gave one sharp approving nod and returned to the shade to sit. 

For the rest of the day Sakura periodically reached up, fingers brushing the delicate glass flowers seeming stunned. Sasuke felt…a sort of smug pleasure at how he had been able to make someone so shocked and happy with a simple gift that held no value to himself. If she was less squealy and hovery, and more quietly pleased with soft smiles, it only benefited his hearing and his sanity.

.--.

Only a week later they were waiting for Kakashi again, and Sasuke felt the quick-silver flare of a sort of smugness as he kept noticing his teammates still wore his gifts. Their loudness had returned of course, but they were often a tad… quieter when they spoke to him. Well, Naruto was still loud, but he was calmer in body, less jumpy and challenging. Something had changed and now the boy simply beamed at him, the insults more like friendly banter than real insults. Sakura was more polite, a bit softer, though she still had her mood swings. But she was trying less desperately to get his attention thinking she already had it and it made her easier to deal with. 

So Sasuke was quite pleased with himself. He had had also lasted a week of socializing with them and not been driven completely mad by their presence yet. 

Except now he was watching Naruto throw shuriken at a long and couldn’t help but wince at every throw. Oh, Naruto was decent. Not the best but not the worst, but his shuriken were so dull some were bouncing off the log instead of lodging into it.

“Naruto,” Sasuke said, low and demanded as he came up to him, “Give me one of those.”

Naruto peered at him confused but handed one over. Sasuke eyed it with distaste. It was dull, but not because Naruto didn’t care for them, it was simply apparent they should have been retired long ago. They were old, worn so thin they could barely take another sharpening, all dinged and scratched and on the verge of rusting. They looked far too old for Naruto to have bought them new. 

“These are garbage,” Sasuke said, a tad insulted that Naruto was even using these while being on his team.

Naruto puffed up his cheeks but his shoulders half hunched.

“They’re all I have,” he spat, an odd sort of defensive wariness in his voice.

Sasuke wrinkled his nose, unsure of where Naruto’s dark eyes had come from. The boy looked …he looked a tad defeated while trying to be indignant. Sasuke handed the shuriken back and Naruto turned sharply back to the log throwing with a tad more viciousness.

Sasuke stared at his back, brows furrowed. Then he looked at the sky and turned on his heel.

“Where are you going Sasuke?” Sakura piped up, curious.

“I’ll be back before Kakashi,” was all Sasuke said as he headed back towards the Uchiha compound. 

He returned within the hour, and found Sakura sitting a tad closer to Naruto, looking over his weapons with a trained eye and a frown as well as Naruto sat slumped, glaring at his blades. Sasuke walked up to them, both glancing up at him, and set two boxes in Naruto’s lap before sitting as well.

“What?” Naruto blinked.

“Those are for you. Recycle yours,” Sasuke grunted.

Naruto pried the lid off the first box and stared wide-eyed at the array of brand new shuriken sitting in the silk. The second box held kunai since Sasuke assumed Naruto’s knives couldn’t be any better than his stars.

“Sakura, let me see yours,” Sasuke demanded.

He doubted hers were anywhere near as bad as Naruto’s. She quickly handed them over and Sasuke eyed them. They were decent quality, not the lowest but not the highest. Perfectly fine for genin. 

“You need to sharpen them,” Sasuke said.

She nodded quickly and set to work when Sasuke offered her his sharpening stone. Naruto was simply staring at the boxes of weapons.

“I-I can’t pay you for these,” Naruto finally mumbled, 

Sasuke snorted and Naruto’s head whipped up, a sort of mulish look on his face as he glared at Sasuke.

“They’re a gift moron,” Sasuke said shortly.

Naruto’s mulish look vanished and he reached out to hesitantly touch the blades.

“I don’t have a gift for you though,” he muttered.

“That’s not the point of gifts,” Sasuke frowned, quite sure he was correct at least, “Use them. It’ll benefit the team.”

It seemed ‘Team’ was the key word as Naruto relaxed just the slightest, as if some questions had been answered.

“Thanks bastard,” Naruto said, but it was a tad more subdued.

The smile tugging at his lips was happy though, if a tad overwhelmed. Sasuke watched with sharp eyes as Naruto put his new weapons in his pouches, setting the old ones aside to be recycled. 

“Try them out,” Sasuke urged.

And so Naruto returned to practice, a sort of stunned look on his face when the blades sunk into the wood with an ease he had never had. His beaming face when he realized he wasn’t actually hopeless at using kunai and shuriken, had simply been dealing with shitty equipment, made something in Sasuke flutter. 

.--.

“Sakura,” Sasuke said shortly, holding out a box.

Sakura blinked at him and then accepted with a sort of hesitant but eager look. She took the box and opened it carefully. Inside was a set of hair pins. Similar to the glass flower ones these were long pins decorated at one end with small fabric flowers in pink and purple and red. 

“They are meant for combat,” Sasuke said.

Sakura stared at him wide eyed.

“Your Taijutsu isn’t as good as mine,” Sasuke said bluntly, “My aunt tipped them in poison before putting them in her hair. And then you don’t need to be good, you just need one hit.”

She looked down at them again.

“They aren’t poisoned now,” Sasuke said as she stood staring still.

Sakura gently took them from the box and tucked them in her hair. The purple covered bun was starting to be edged by flowers now, all pretty and delicate, and most importantly deadly if need be. 

“Thank you,” Sakura flushed.

Sasuke gave a sharp nod and if his eyes darted to the soft moving flowers every once in a while, it was to make sure they stayed in place, not any sense of appreciation. 

.--.

The next gift Sasuke gave the pair came a week later. Naruto’s ninja sandals had been sliced accidentally in a training spar and the one came unraveled.

“Dammit,” Naruto whined looking at the cut straps, “I’ll have to use my old pair now.”

“Just get new ones,” Sakura said.

Naruto looked away, back at his sandals and sighed.

“…Don’t have the money,” Naruto mumbled.

Sasuke frowned and Sakura looked unsure, a tad embarrassed for forgetting Naruto was an orphan and had no one to provide for him. Naruto used a strip of bandage to tie the sandal on for the remainder of the day as they finished their spar and Kakashi arrived, setting them on a D-rank to weed a garden.

That night Sasuke returned home and dug through various houses until he had a few sets of sandals. When he met with team seven the next day Naruto was indeed wearing an older scuffed pair of sandals, looking a size to small.

“Here,” Sasuke said shoving a few pairs forward, “See which ones fit.”

And Naruto, surprised but a little more used to Sasuke’s gift giving now, simply tried them on until he found a pair of dark combat sandals that rose almost all the way to his knee. They were built well, like armor and would deflect even a kunai. Naruto jumped up and down in them and did some kicks and in the end he beamed at Sasuke. Sasuke simply nodded. Then he turned to Sakura who even shot Naruto’s shoes an appreciative look. 

“Here,” Sasuke said, shoving the second pile at her.

“Mine are fine,” Sakura said.

“Always good to have extra,” Sasuke said.

So Sakura went through the pile and found all three sets fit her well from the low heeled sandals to the ones similar to Naruto’s.

“Keep them all,” Sasuke said when Sakura tried to pick, “Naruto, keep the larger pairs for when you grow.”

And his team gave him grateful looks, recognizing the high quality and how much said sandals were worth. Sasuke felt a smile tug at his lips looking at how his team was wearing almost complete outfits from him. Perhaps he should look into pants next. Naruto’s orange ones clashed terribly with the Uchiha coat and dark sandals. And Sakura needed more protection than spandex shorts offered. 

.--.

The thing is, in Sasuke’s mind, the gifts have been a way of communicating. They’re a way of saying I’m providing, I’m helping, I’m accepting. He even thinks the other two may have picked on this. Sasuke had said more in the past weeks than he has said in years, and the gifts have helped him, they’re given him something to say, something relevant to talk about and it’s so much easier than floundering his way through a conversation. 

In Sasuke’s mind, the gifts have also been easy, effortless. They’re simply things that belonged to his family, which now belong to him. So he is simply giving them things he’ll never use. To Naruto they’ve made a world of difference. Other than ramen and Iruka’s headband, Naruto had never really received gifts. Oh he got a few things every year from the old man, but mostly they were little things like his goggles. They’ve never really been anything he needed. Nothing like the kunai and the sandals and the coat that Sasuke specifically grabbed for him. 

Naruto who thought Sasuke was an arrogant bastard is seeing a side of Sasuke that says he _cares_. That he cares about Naruto and how Naruto does, that he cares about the team. And to Naruto that is recognition which is all he craves. 

That they come from Sasuke’s dead family, that he is personally giving him something with so many memories is better than any randomly bought gift. After the second gift Naruto realizes he actually likes the bastard, is actually thankful. Realizes he’s happy on Team Seven in a way he had never known possible. Small gifts which others might have simply said thank you for, have changed Naruto’s whole outlook on his team. 

For Sakura, more used to gifts from loving parents, they are still important. Because they’re from Sasuke, the boy she’s been crushing on for years. But before, when Sasuke had seem unattainable and untouchable never talking with any girls or even barely looking at them, now he is suddenly right in front of her. Her crush had been built around this dark mysterious boy who she really knew nothing about besides what he showed on the surface. And then he had given her a gift that was practical but also beautiful. Perhaps she was seeing too much into it but it was _thoughtful_. Sakura had considered Sasuke like every fairy tale prince who would rescue her and sweep her off her feet and she would be the perfect wife. She had never considered him as a 3D person who could even think about something as simple as a hair pin to go with the practical hair wrap. That he gave it to her, effortlessly, despite its value in both money and heirloom, was shocking. 

Sakura had no illusions he loved her. She had no illusions that they were gifts made out of love because he had suddenly opened his eyes and fell for her. No, she knew they were gifts to a comrade, to a teammate, to a friend. Because they had to be friends if he was giving her such valuable things. And… and Sakura still loved him, still had a crush on him, but this… Sakura had never had a friend outside of Ino and that friendship had crashed when they both fell for Sasuke. But now Sasuke is her friend who gives gifts and keeps an eye on her when they’re on missions and who spots a problem in Naruto’s gear without a single word. It’s… its nice. Sakura’s crush is pushed down because she feels like it would be rude to mistake his gifts, to ruin whatever effort he’s putting into this new friendship. Oh she still loves him, but she can act civil, she can act like a friend first. Besides, her mother always say to marry her best friend.

And so Sasuke, who has hoped his gifts are showing he’s willing to cooperate, doesn’t really realize he’s cemented two very deep friendships. 

.--.

He does find them pants in the end. He goes through his uncle’s house and to Naruto he gives dark slim pants to tuck under his knee high armored sandals. For Sakura he finds a similar pair of pants meant for a woman. They’re both black and have wire mesh sewn into them making them a bit armored as well. 

Both accept these gifts with no excuses, just beaming at him as they pull them on. 

Naruto looks…more professional in dark pants, knee high armored sandals, and the dark grey loose coat done up with uchiwa fan buttons and dark stripes on the sleeves. Sakura looks like a real Konoichi in her short dark kimono with hibiscus flowers and her dark pants and her deadly hair ornaments. Both of them had of course strapped pouches to their thighs for weapons and Sakura has taken to wearing bandages around her torso under the kimono, just visible at the V of her neck. Naruto hasn’t once protested the lack of orange and with Sakura’s generous help they have sewed the red Uzumaki spiral on the back of the coat. Neither asked Naruto what his ties were to the famous sigil that decorates most Konoha-nin clothes, they simply respect it. 

“Good,” is all Sasuke says, sharply, when the two peer at him for approval. 

Sasuke has changed into dark pants bandaged at the ankle as well after a rather dirty weeding day half destroyed his white shorts and now they all match to a degree.

.--.

All of the gifts so far have been from his family home, pulled from unused closets and trunks with only minimal effort. The first time Sasuke buys them something else it’s dinner.

They’ve been a team for over a month at this point and have fallen into an easy comradeship. Sasuke is eased by the fact that Sakura and Naruto have calmed and quieted slightly and are both more casually friendly with him. Both seem to recognize him as the team leader as well, looking to him when orders or planning are required, and something in Sasuke settles and calms, no longer itching to challenge or fight for anything like recognition. 

So Sasuke lets himself be dragged for a team dinner, the first time they hang out outside of team assignments. The dinner is…acceptable. They seem to respect the fact Sasuke is a silent kid and so while they talk with him, they do not expect long answers, are not disappointed when he barely contributes. They merely smile at him and carry one. 

When he pays for the entire dinner they give faint protests, saying they can pay for themselves but Sasuke gives them a blank look and they quiet.

By the time they’ve had their forth meal as a team the two stop complaining just give him soft fond looks. Sasuke, who has not smiled happily in years, finds himself fighting the urge to smile back. 

.--.

Sakura had run off a tad early from training saying she had to help her father with something so it was only Naruto and Sasuke as the sun dipped low. Sasuke brushed some dirt off his pants, nodded to Naruto who did the same and turned to leave. But fingers wrapping in his shirt stopped him. He turned, raising a brow at Naruto who looked at his feet, sandals scuffing in the dirt as he avoided eye contact. 

“Sasuke,” Naruto muttered, “I…Can I borrow some money?”

Sasuke blinked at him.

“I mean, I’ll pay you back!” Naruto said meeting his gaze finally, flushed, “I’m just low on money and my water bill is due. Prices went up.”

Sasuke frowned, brow furrowing.

“I…never mind,” Naruto said quickly, looking away again.

“No,” Sasuke said, when Naruto went to run off, “I can lend you money. But why did prices go up?”

“Landlord said water is more expensive,” Naruto said quickly.

“…Water doesn’t just become more expensive,” Sasuke narrowed his gaze, “Why are you paying your landlord and not the company?”

“He handles all that stuff for me! It’s easier.”

Sasuke still thought that sounded odd. 

“I will lend you the money,” Sasuke said easily seeing the way Naruto was fidgeting, embarrassed, “How much do you need?”

Naruto’s relieved expression as Sasuke pulled his wallet out was a soft desperate thing. 

“I’ll pay you back as soon as we get paid,” Naruto said taking the cash.

Then the boy actually bowed to him. Sasuke had never seen him bow to anyone.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sasuke cleared his throat, “I trust you.”

The resulting smile those words evoked was blinding. Sasuke watched him run off and then turned, heading not for the Uchiha compound, but towards Kakashi’s apartment. Sasuke wasn’t one to talk to adults often nor ask for anything. But if he perhaps mentioned there was something suspicious about Naruto’s landlord, Kakashi would go look into it. 

.--.  
“I need a favour,” Sasuke said slowly.

He was unsure if he wanted help with this, but knew he needed it. He was also unsure if this was something he could ask his teammates to help with. It seemed…too personal. 

“What do you need us to do?” Naruto asked, with no hesitation.

“I…” Sasuke took a deep breath, “I need help going through the Uchiha compound.”

“Cleaning?” Sakura asked.

“Packing,” Sasuke corrected.

“Do you have boxes?”

“No.”

Sakura gave a decisive nod.

“Naruto,” she said, tone bossy, “Go look for boxes. You’ll find some stacked beside the dumpsters in the shopping district. Also check sake shops, as they receive everything in boxes but don’t keep them. Check the alley ways.”

Naruto split into ten clones who leapt off in varying directions.

“Do we need anything else?” Sakura asked him, “You sure you don’t want Naruto to make a bunch of clones to clean up?”

Sasuke hesitated and she nodded again, leading him off towards a department store to grab leaning supplies. Half an hour later, with arms laden down, they met Naruto at the gates of the Uchiha compound. 

“Didn’t know where you wanted me,” Naruto said sheepishly as Sakura gave him a look for loitering about.

Sasuke took another deep breath and silently led the two through the gates of the compound. Sakura and Naruto fell silent beside him. When they made it to his house he toed his shoes off, arms still full of buckets and rags and sprays. 

“Please come in,” he murmured.

His house was …clean for lack of other words. He had made sure of it. The two followed him down the hall to the living room where he stacked the cleaning supplies near the hall. Sasuke turned to look at the other two and his breath caught in his throat.

Sakura and Naruto had moved to the corner. He watched as they both carefully went to their knees and put their hands together. Sasuke felt frozen as his two teammates prayed at the small shrine set up in the corner for his mother and father. 

For a long moment silence reigned in the room. When eth two straightened they gave Sasuke’s solemn dips of their heads and Sasuke swallowed with difficulty. No one had…well Sasuke hadn’t let anyone in here… but Sasuke had gotten a few words about how the Uchiha would be missed of course, but no one had ever done something as…intimate as actually pray for his parents and family instead of giving him meaningless words. 

“Where do you want my clones to bring the boxes?” Naruto asked, breaking the tension.

“Stack them in the halls,” Sasuke shrugged awkwardly.

“Do you have a map of the compound?” Sakura asked, “We should make a game plan.”

So Sasuke pulled out the blueprints of the layouts he had dug up for the lawyers, pushing all other thoughts to the side. 

“Okay,” Sakura said rolling it out on the coffee table, “What do we need to do exactly.”

“We need to empty every house,” Sasuke said, “I plan to get rid of a good amount of stuff, but some will need to be stored.”

“Do you want to do this house by house?” Sakura asked.

“…No. Let’s do it by item,” Sasuke finally decided. 

House by house would be neater and maybe quicker, but if he could get Naruto’s clones to sweep every place for say clothing and sort all of that first it would be easier on him. If everyone’s clothes got mixed together so he wasn’t overwhelmed with one families items at once, left to seep in memories. Plus, then he could keep track of how much he was keeping instead of trying to work off memory.

“Naruto,” Sakura called into the hallway where the real blond was directing the clones that had started to pour in with boxes and bags and baskets, “Come here.”

And Naruto came with no complaint. 

“This is the whole compound,” Sakura said pointing to the map, “We aren’t doing this by house, we’re going to do it by items. Can you create two clones a house and send them sweeping through the houses?”

“Sure. What should we start with?” Naruto asked.

“Kitchen supplies,” Sasuke said as they both looked at him.

Kitchen stuff was easy. It had no distinguishing marks and would pull up no memories. 

“On it!” Naruto nodded and stepped outside to send a wave of clones outwards. 

Sakura started to clear the living room, pushing furniture against the wall with Sasuke’s help. 

“Put it against the wall,” Sakura said as clones started to return with armfuls and basketfuls of stuff, “Keep the left side clear.”

And soon they had a growing mountain of plates, pots, pans, dishes, and everything you could need. Sasuke felt a tad overwhelmed looking at the growing pile. When the compound had had its initial clean after the massacre, the Hokage sending people in to scrub blood away, they had been nice enough to get rid of food and anything similar that would go bad. But everything else had been left respectfully where it was. 

It should have been Sasuke’s job a long time ago to go through each place and do this. But Sasuke hadn’t…..he hadn’t been strong enough. He still wasn’t, but he had help now. 

“Let’s start sorting,” Sakura said, “Do you want to keep anything in particular?”

“I…a few sets of dishes,” he decided, “And maybe a few cooking supplies.”

So Sakura fetched some boxes and Sasuke picked out the few things he wanted stored away. They would be useful if his family ever grew.

“You guys can take whatever you want,” Sasuke muttered as Sakura oohed and awed over a pretty purple ceramic set.

“No, it’s yours,” Sakura flushed, setting the dish down.

“Everything I don’t store is getting donated,” he reminded her, “Take it.”

Naruto was less hesitant, giving a cheer.

“Finally! Cups without cracks!” Naruto said cheerfully, picking out a random assortment of said cups.

“Do you have a pen?” Sakura asked.

Sasuke found her a pen and watched as she labelled two boxes with her and Naruto’s names, tucking them just in the kitchen out of the way. He nodded approvingly when they tucked a few things in them each. 

Naruto and two clones started to help box everything else up. He tried to use more clones but with all the stuff plus them, the living room was rapidly losing space. 

“Tuck these in the house next door,” Sakura commanded, sending clones out with full boxes of stuff to be donated, “We’ll figure out where to take it later.”

“What next boss?” Naruto, or a clone, asked.

“Books,” Sasuke said.

And so they started in on books. While clan secrets and any actual techniques were already sealed away for protection, and had been even when the clan was alive, his clan had been decently avid readers. Especially considering their ability to memorize and many had taken the time to brush up on many different areas of knowledge. 

“Sasuke, may I borrow some of these?” Sakura asked politely. 

Sasuke gave her a look. She blushed but gave him a smile and put it in her box. Sasuke considered what they should do next. 

“Weapons,” Sasuke told Naruto.

Naruto grinned and soon they had an array of pointy objects all set down carefully. There weren’t as many as one would think of a ninja family. Uchiha had never dealt with weapons very often and many had carried their kunai and shuriken on them, not keeping large stashes. Though they weren’t as nice as the initial set Sasuke had given Naruto, Sasuke made sure his teammates were on their way to having an excess of stars and knives before packing up the weapons to be stored. No use donating those when he would need them one day. 

Shoes came next, mainly ninja sandals and a mix of civilian boots. Most of these went into the donation pile, though they each kept a few pairs a few sizes too big for when they all started to grow. 

“Can you clean out any old medicine, sprays, soap, rags, and the like,” Sasuke said, “Things that can’t be donated.”

So Naruto started some trash bags. Next Sasuke had him go through and pick up random items like pens and envelopes and matches and anything that couldn’t be categorized easily. It was like a junk drawer had exploded across Sasuke’s living room. 

Sasuke and Sakura spent a good deal of time picking out things that could be useful later like matches and candles and a few calligraphy sets while also tossing used pencils and erasers and the like. 

So they did. Naruto eagerly accepted a futon and set of towels that Sasuke pushed on him. They were a tad musty, but part of the cleaning every year was airing such things out so they weren’t terrible. 

“Take one,” Sasuke urged Sakura when she said she had no need for a futon, “One day you will move out of your parent’s home.”

So Sakura picked out a futon, a set of linens, and a set of towels. 

“Anything left, besides clothing,” Sasuke told the two next, “Leave any large furniture as well.”

And so they went through the last few things, picking over decorative vases and paintings and baskets and anything else Naruto found. Then came the jewelry, all of which went in a chest and was tucked away to be stored.

Sasuke took a deep breath after and asked for the clothes to be next. Sasuke watched as Narutos brought armfuls of clothing draping it over the couch and table and anything except the floor. Sasuke focused on breathing and when Sakura started folding Sasuke said nothing. 

Then Sakura got a hold of a stitch riper and painstakingly taught a couple clones how to gently rip out all the uchiwa fans on the clothing. It was too painful to watch but Sasuke was glad that no one else would wear the symbol except for Sasuke and his team now. 

When it came time to actually decide what he wanted, Sasuke kept the bare minimum. He kept a few family kimono and yukata, tucking them away for some day. For himself he kept a few standard outfits of dark pants and dark shirts, nothing defining. 

“Here,” Sasuke told Sakura when he ran across a beautiful dark red haroi. 

He draped it over her shoulder and it offset her kimono nicely. It also had not been reached by Naruto’s rather quick fingers and the uchiha fan still sat on the back.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him accepting it easily. 

Sasuke ended up giving Naruto another coat and set of pants as well as a thick travelling cloak. Sakura got an extra kimono and another hair wrap. 

.--.  
NOTES  
.--.

The idea was that Sasuke who was both an emotional obsessed boy, was not truly obsessed with items or things. So he gives some to his team, sometimes out of indignation at their own supplies. But this act shows Naruto Sasuke might not be an arrogant little bitch (or not as much as one) and does a lot towards making Sakura see him as a real boy and not a fairytale. It doesn’t make Sasuke any nicer or politer or even all that much friendlier but it does change their perspective. And I always so Sasuke as under-socialized and traumatized, much like Naruto. He’s not really sure what to do half the time but since the gifts are taken so well he continues on that thread. He’d been a part of a large clan as the Head family and he knew his duty was to care for his clan, his people and so he adopts his team as that concept. 

Plus, I always wondered how he’d dealt with all the Uchiha stuff he inherited. It seemed likely it had been left alone while he was a kid and still in the throes of grief. 

The goal of this story was to get a tight-knit Team Seven who got used to looking to Sasuke of leadership, with Kakashi kind of smiling amused from the sides before Sasuke started eying him up and asking his measurements (which made Kakashi deflect and disappear). I think Sasuke would be a good Team lead (he did well in Sound and with Team hawk). It would also have been a sort of feel good story with Team bonding and Sasuke showering his team with gifts – with a bit of a more romantic ending of Sakura/Sasuke/Naruto. AKA Sugar Daddy Sasuke.


	10. Unwoven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super unfinished first half, but I had the ending I wanted all written out.

Sakura defects from Konohagakure on a beautiful spring May day. She walks out the gate calling greetings, a pack on her back and they wave her out with smiles. No one realizes she has defected for three months.

.--.

She growled at him, low and guttural, a noise meant to inspire terror and Uchiha Itachi felt the thrill crawl up his spine. She came at him with fists and feet, spinning wildly with the speed as she went for his throat. He dodged and danced with her, twirling beneath the moonlight and he kept the same bland expression on his face even as he felt his respect grow. 

It was not uncommon for him to respect an opponent, but it was unusual for him to respect a missing-nin. Despite the hypocrisy he hated missing-nin. Those that fled their village for selfish reasons, for blood or for battle or for hate. He hated most those who had turned on their own comrades. There was only ever the odd ninja who had left for reasons out of their control. For hatred unearned turned towards them. 

He did not know her reasons yet, even as he recognized the pink haired girl that had been teamed with his brother as genin. He did not know her reasons, be they selfish or not, but he did recognize the reckless way she threw herself at him, all emotion and no finesse. She was bubbling with rage, not at him, but at someone else, and often rage was a very telling emotion. 

When she finally tired, when she was finally worn down, and his own breath laboured, he slammed her to the ground, arm twisted up behind her back and her face dug into the dirt, his knife at her throat. 

“Now," he said, voice halfway to breathless which was impressive feat on her side. “What is a konoha-ninja doing so far out here.”

“Not a konoha ninja,” she spat, blood and vitriol mixing.

“I find that hard to believe,” he said, “Konoha is known for its loyal ninja. And one such as yourself should only be loyal.”

“One such as myself?" she sneered, “Konoha produced you, did it not.”

He did not let the barb dig in. From where she couldn’t see him, he released a slight secretive smile. Sometimes he could only laugh at his own situation, or else he would start screaming and never stop. 

“Give me one reason then and I may let you live,” he murmured. 

He waited for her to mull her words over. Waited for her to disappoint him. But then she went slack, the fight leaving as she curled up beneath him.

“Danzo,” she muttered so quietly it was only a breath of air.

He did not outwardly change, did not tense or flinch, but inside he barred his teeth. 

“The council-man?" he asked idly.

“The bastard,” she sat again, a sudden surge of rage rising in her. “He will destroy Konoha!”

“So you abandon it to his mercy?" he asked.

She shook her head, face still in the dirt and tried to breathe through her anger.

“I am no help to Konoha anymore. I found out, and was found out in return. No one would have believed me as I had no hard proof. He will send men after me and he does not care for collateral damage.”

That, Itachi could understand.

He slowly pulled the knife away and stepped back, allowing her to roll over. She watched him with hooded wary eyes.

“I care not for Konoha’s internal politics,” he lied, “But one such as yourself would be useful.”

“One such as myself?" she spat again.

He did not answer only tilted his head in a gesture and started to walk. He heard her stand, heard her pant once caught in indecision. Then she followed. 

.--.

……BLANK…..

.--.

“If I have to sew you up, one more goddam time I’m going to sew your head to your ass,” Sakura hissed as she snapped his neck back into alignment.

Hidan’s head let out a moan and Sakura shuddered.

“God, you actually enjoy this.”

“Shut your heathen mouth,” he sighed happily. 

Sakura gave Kakuzu a pleading look but the man grunted and left.

“You could at least take his head with you!” she called after the man.

“Oh, do that again!” Hidan let out a groan as she twisted his arm back in place.

“Shut up. How did you even get yourself torn apart like this,” she muttered.

He just gave a faint whimper of pleasure and Sakura nearly snarled in frustration. She flung his head against the wall and watched dispassionately as it fell out of sight.

“Bitch!” he cursed, voice muffled by the distance. 

“I’m gonna make it hurt, you bastard,” she called back as she reached her hands into his chest cavity.

By the time she had pushed the ribcage into alignment and popped his sternum into place, she was elbows deep in blood and gore and Hidan had finally stopped making noises and started to simply pray. She grabbed her prepared needle full of wire and started to sew quickly and efficiently, sealing up the large wounds before she finally, grudgingly retrieved his head and sewed it into place. She had to hold him still as he flailed in her grip, wanting to sit up even as she tried to sew his neck together. 

When she was finally done she gave him a hard slap for good measure and scooted back. He jolted once, still muttering his prayers before he seemed to snap to attention. He gave a low groan, his whole body shuddering.

“Bitch. What did you do?" he groaned.

“I told you I’d make it hurt,” she glared at him.

She made to stand and he was quicker than a viper. She felt a hand close about her ankle and tug and she was suddenly on the ground, breath knocked out of her. Hands crushed her shoulders to the floor as legs straddled her and she looked up with a mixture of anger and fear at Hidan who gazed down at her adoringly. 

“You send such sweet prayers to Jashin-sama,” He murmured, leaning over so his face was inches from hers, expression rapturous. “He would enjoy you as one of his own if only you would commit to him.”

“Get off me!” She shouted, trying to buck him away.

“Let me prove it,” Hidan said, hand caressing at her throat before he started to squeeze.

Sakura tried to scream again and gasped against his hand as he strangled her. He was praying again, eyes glazed and his other hand skimming down her side to retrieve her own kunai. She started to fully panic as he vision danced and as he levelled a blade to her heart. 

“He will show you the meaning of plain and pleasure and how they can never be separated!”

Then there was a sweep of a large fist and suddenly Sakura could breathe. She rolled onto her side, gasping and heaving for breath, hand going for the kunai he had dropped, scrabbling against the floor for a grip. The sharp sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed and then stopped before Sakura could even scramble for her feet. A large hand gently helped her up, gripping her elbow to keep her stead.

Sakura looked up into Kisame’s concerned gaze as he reached out, brushing his fingers against his throat. Past him she caught sight of Hidan out cold on the ground. 

“I am not sewing him back together, ever again,” Sakura rumbled, voice like gravel.

Kisame’s eyes flashed with rage and he had turned back towards Hidan before Sakura stopped him, one hand grabbing his sleeve the other going for her own throat. She healed her throat with ease and she winced only slightly

“He just caught me by surprise,” she winced.

“I’ll kill him,” Kisame insisted. 

“I will deal with him.”

They both started and turned to face Konan who stood in the doorway, face drawn with distaste. 

“I will deal with it,” she repeated. “Sakura, go rest.”

“Thank you,” Sakura said honestly. 

Konan gave her a softer look, a flash of softening eyes, before the dragged Hidan off. Sakura let Kisame drag her off back to her rooms and knew that he would be telling Itachi about all of this as soon as he returned. Itachi would not be happy with Hidan. Which was the whole point in riling the bastard up.

.--.

…..BLANK……

.--.

Kisame grabbed the slip of a girl and high tailed it out of there. She screamed and screamed and screamed, and he could feel her struggling in his hold but he held fast as he booked it. He felt his respect both fall and rise from her in the same moment. Fall because she was acting like every foolish woman in love, struck by shock and terror and not keeping her calm. But on the other hand he could see the love she held for Itachi and he respected that loyalty. She would follow him to his death if she could. And Kisame respected Itachi enough he would not let that happen.

“We have to go back!” she shouted at him. “We can’t leave Itachi!”

“The whole forest is on fire,” he said calmly, already knowing there was no going back for him. “Fire that will not be quenched by anything for the next three days. It is death to go back.”

She understood as well as he that Itachi was most likely already dead. If not yet, he would be.

“Please,” Sakura tried one last time.

“No,” Kisame said and turned in the direction of Ame.

She crumpled again him, sobs starting to bloom and he said nothing, just went on. 

That night he watched as she tore up her room, throwing out anything remotely looking like Itachi’s. He waited until she had collapsed in the center of the room, looking wrecked and then he picked her up and took her to his own room, far away from Itachi’s. He would keep an eye on her for now, allow her to grieve, and then he would ask her to replace Itachi as his partner. He could use the small ball of rage that was Haruno Sakura at his back.

.--.

…..BLANK….

.--.

Hatake Kakashi found her on a fresh July day when the sun was shining and the bird singing. She had no supplies, only a few kunai, and a sealing scroll at her waist marked with designs meant to hold multiple corpses.

“Sakura," he called, “I think this run is over.”

Haruno Sakura was a stubborn vicious fighter. She carried tenacity in her very bones and would not be pushed down, would not be called weak. She booked no insults and fought with her fists as much as her chakra. 

But Sakura was tired. Marrow-deep weariness had settled in and all she had left was exhaustion. 

“Okay,” she said.

She went without a fight.

.--. 

Sakura peered about the interrogation room. She looked over smooth walls and perfect corners. She looked at the faces watching her across from the desk and from the doorway. She looked down at her own hands. 

“Could I get something to eat? Lunch with this date?” she asked, trying for a light tone but only getting something flat. 

She felt like a rung out rag and wondered when she would be allowed to sleep. There was movement by the door and she looked up at the smirking scarred face of Nara Shikaku where he shifted against the wall. Yamanaka Inoichi beside him did not look away from Sakura for a moment, clipboard in hand. Morino Ibiki, in his own corner, let out a snort. Yamato in full ANBU gear behind Tsunade didn’t move a single muscle. 

“Sakura,” Tsunade said, trying to draw her attention again, “Explain it to me.”

“Everything?” Sakura asked.

“Everything.”

Sakura nodded and looked down at her hands again. Before she could start the door swung inwards. Only Sakura and Tsunade looked up, every other eye focused on Sakura and her every movement. 

“Tea?” Kakashi called cheerfully, a large tray balanced on one hand.

Tsunade gave a sharp nod. Kakashi slumped in, kicking the door shut and meandered over even under the tense atmosphere. He set the tray down and quickly and efficiently served tea. A plate of rice cakes found their way to Sakura’s side of the desk.

“I suppose there is no point in telling you to get lost, is there?” Tsunade said dryly.

Kakashi merely smiled at her and took up point at Sakura’s shoulder. Sakura resisted the urge to lean into him. She would never admit how nice it was to have him there at her side in a room of interrogators and guards.

Tsunade sighed and folded her hands again, eyes going to Sakura. 

“Sakura,” Tsunade repeated and this time it was a demand that booked no disobedience.

“Yes Hokage-sama,” Sakura bowed her head, “Jonin Haruno Sakura reporting for duty. I have completed my S-rank mission to destroy the Akatsuki. Mission status; successful.”

She heard Inoichi’s sharp intake behind her, heard Shikaku shift, saw Ibiki twitch a frown. Yamato and Kakashi didn’t even blink.

“Welcome back,” Tsunade said, softening her expression just enough to give Sakura a smile, “Good job, konoichi. Now report.”

“Shall I start the day I left?”

“Start with first contact with Akatsuki.”

“After leaving Konoha it only took one month to initiate contact with Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame,” Sakura said, “I gave the pre-decided cover story for me ‘defection’. It had enough key words to make Uchiha Itachi listen and enough information to keep Hoshigaki unsuspicious. When I had a moment alone with Itachi I gave him the mission and he agreed to work with me. They introduced me to Pein, the leader of Akatsuki, and Itachi vouched for me. I played it as you said and acted wary and distrustful of them. 

“It took me four month of various missions with teams before I saw my first opportunity. I killed Sasori of the Red Sands during a conflict via arrow to the heart. I made sure to have a fall guy and ‘killed him in a rage’. They passed it off as a lucky blow and paired me with The Bomber Deidara permanently. I waited for a few months and started a visible relationship with Itachi. Then I went for Hidan of Jashin next. I managed to doses him with a paralytic before I dismembered him. Itachi helped make sure he would not be coming back despite his ‘immortal’ status. Because of some animosity between them no one batted an eye when he ‘disappeared’.

“I had to play the waiting game again for a few weeks after that until Deidara and I ran across an Iwa team during a mission where I staged their assassination of him and my own injuries. During my ‘injuries’ I let lose a few emotions to convince Pein I was still loyal. Kakuzu was harder to deal with especially after they paired me with him. I didn’t want to do anything to draw suspicion this far into the game. Luckily he was sent on a solo mission and a Konoha and Kumo teamed up to take him down. Let Asuma know I said good job on that. 

“That was when Itachi revealed to me his theory of who Tobi was. We tag teamed the being named Zetsu when we saw an opportunity and Itachi used Ameretsu to make sure he was truly defeated. Itachi was nearing the end by this point so he immediately put his end game into play with my ‘angry, but understanding’ sort of encouragement that you said would convince him to go ahead with his plan. 

“Pein benched me after my ‘wild display of grief’ and it made it easier to get him. Itachi and I had concluded that Pein was not the real mind behind the Paths of Pein and it led me to using Konan to kill him. I managed to infect her with a strong strain of influenza and then ‘cured’ her when she came to me. It was easy to make the illness symptoms banish while keeping her contagious. A few days of her visits to the real Nagato and he fell sick. She brought me to him and I got to see him but lied and told her there was nothing else I could do for him. He died and in her grief Konan let me closer. A quick contact poison swiped from Sasori earlier led to her death a month later and it was mourned as heartbreak. 

“Kisame was probably the easiest after all of that. With Akatsuki dead we fled together, Kisame feeling at least some loyalty towards me as ‘Itachi’s Girl’. I killed him in his sleep and sealed his body. Then I went on my secondary mission and tracked Uchiha Sasuke down. He was quite easy to manipulate when I mentioned his brother, Madara, and Danzo. It only took the barest of effort to turn him away from Konoha and towards ‘Madara’. With Sasuke and his team as backup we managed to kill the unknown Uchiha who turned out to not be Madara. We suffered casualties of course and it was easy to put the rest of Sasuke’s team down before I sealed his chakra pathways. Then I sent out the signal to pull me out and Kakashi responded.”

Sakura finished her report inelegantly by shoving the last rice cake in her mouth and washing it down with a swallow of tea. 

“Do I have a cover story for my ‘defection’?” she asked idly, “Or do I need to lay low?”

“Where could you even lay low?” Kakashi asked amused.

“Suna,” Sakura joked, “Or another long-term mission. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure I would make it back alive from this mission.”

He squeezed her shoulder, a twitch in his cheek that tried to etch pain on his face. She reached up and squeezed his hand in return, sorry for being so blunt but too tired too much care what came out of her mouth right now. 

“No,” Tsunade spoke up, “You will be on leave starting now until Inoichi, Ibiki, and myself all agree you are mentally and emotionally capable of taking further missions.”

“You sound like you are thinking that might take a while,” Sakura said, fighting between amused and indignant.

“Most people who do such a long term S-rank mission are retired afterwards, if they survive,” Ibiki finally spoke, “and if they don’t go insane after completion.”

He gave her a very focused look and she raised a brow at him. Their staring contest was broke when Tsunade rolled her eyes.

“You deserve a holiday Sakura,” Tsunade said. 

Sakura considered it.

“I think my nerves are shot,” she admitted quietly, “A break would be nice.”

“I’d be more concerned if they weren’t, to be honest,” Inoichi said making a note on his clipboard, “That said I’d like to do a full psych evaluation before you are released to wander the streets.”

“Of course,” Tsunade agreed for her, “After I finish the medical examination you can take her straight to your office. It’s why I called you here.”

“And why am I here?” Shikaku asked sounding bored despite his rigid posture, “I had assumed as an extra guard against a S-rank prisoner before I realized you gave my jonin missions without my knowledge.”

“Because I am the Hokage. I can do as I please if I think it is in the villages best interest. And I thought my Jonin commander would like to hear our biggest enemy has been gutted,” Tsunade said dryly, “But you are both dismissed for now. I will summon you to get Sakura when we are finished.”

The two gave sharp bows and left the Hokage’s office silently.

“Ibiki, you may leave as well. Uchiha Sasuke is your main priority now.”

Ibiki gave a sharp nod and vanished after the other two.

“Yamato, please go secure a hospital room for me. Kakashi, Naruto will have heard by now. Go head him off.”

Yamato vanished in a swirl of leaves but Kakashi made sure to give Sakura one more encouraging squeeze before leaving her and Tsunade alone. For a long moment there was silence.

“Good job Sakura,” Tsunade finally said, slumping, “And I am sorry I asked it of you.”

“I was happy to do it,” Sakura only half lied. 

“No you’re not,” Tsunade said bitterly amused, “But it was needed and I trusted no one else to do it.”

Sakura offered her a small tired smile that said she was long since forgiven.

“Did you…” Tsunade started.

Then the Hokage cut off and gave a deep sigh that sounded as tired as Sakura felt.

“I need to know if you’re compromised Sakura.”

“Compromised?” Sakura played dumb, “Everyone is dead.”

“Will you go after Sasuke for Revenge?”

“For what?”

“For killing Itachi.”

“Why would I? Itachi was my mission partner and chose to die by Sasuke’s hand,” Sakura said blithely.

“Sakura. Please,” Tsunade said softly, “Did you love him?”

Sakura was silent. She looked anywhere but Tsunade’s face and tried not to think to deeply on the question.

“Does it matter? He’s dead.”

“Sakura,” Tsunade said impossibly gently.

“I…I think I could have loved him,” Sakura swallowed, “I could have if we had had more time. Or if we weren’t deep undercover. If we hadn’t been on a mission. If he hadn’t been an inconvenience to Konoha and the best thing was for him to die at the end of his decade long mission. Maybe I could have loved him if it wasn’t only a doomed sort of love available to us.”

Sakura tried to calm her breathing, tried to calm her anger. Sakura tried to still her shaking and her beating heart.

“Tsunade,” Sakura said, voice cracking, “I think I am compromised.”

Tsunade enfolded her in a hug and Sakura shattered.

.--.

After a physical exam and in depth psych evaluation, Sakura was released a free woman. It was already spread through Konoha that Sakura had been a deep undercover informant. Nothing was said about her hand in killing all the Akatsuki. She, Tsunade, and Kakashi had all agreed that would paint a target on her back that she didn’t want. She didn’t want any of the fame that might come with killing an organization of S-class criminals. All Sakura wanted was peace, and infamy wouldn’t give her that.

Naruto was the first person she saw as a free woman. Bright blinding Naruto who said nothing. He didn’t shout any accusations, asked no questions. Naruto simply folded her in a hug.

“Welcome home,” Naruto whispered in her ear.

If Sakura wasn’t cried out and bone weary she would have shattered all over again.

“Thank you,” Sakura whispered into his shirt.

And that was that. 

Sasuke had a trial and was released on probation, his chakra still sealed. He and Sakura didn’t avoid one another. They didn’t fight. They didn’t hate one another. Sakura was just as surprised as anyone else that Sasuke held no grudge. But Sasuke looked as tired as her and they enjoyed their suspension from duty by spending hours in the sun talking about everything and nothing and Itachi.

It only took a few years for Sasuke to thank her for bring him home. It only took a year after that for him to ask her to marry him. 

She agreed.

They never spoke of how she saw Itachi in his eyes. They never spoke of the man they were both striving for who was long dead and buried. Instead they found some sort of peace in each other that no one else seemed to understand. And when she gave him children the name Itachi was never suggested. But Sakura did insist on Kisame for their first son. 

And years and years and years later when Naruto became a Hokage and got tired of staring at the hidden safe in the office, he opened it. He went past the scrolls marked Yondaime and Uzumaki Kushina. He went past the scrolls marked Uchiha Massacre and Kyuubi Jinchuriki. Instead he went right for the scroll marked Haruno Sakura and read it back to front until he had it memorized. 

He didn’t have the courage to ask Sakura so he went to Tsunade who had long retired and looked positively ancient if not happy in her sunny garden. He broke and asked her why Sakura had left, why she had accepted that mission so long ago. Tsunade gave him a fond glance.

“For you, you idiot,” she told him, “For Team Seven and the future where you were Hokage.”

And next time he saw Sakura and she told him she loved him he smiled and said:

“I know.”

.--.  
.--.  
.--.  
NOTES  
.--.  
So This happens during a slightly longer time-skip. Naruto is still with Jiraya, Sakura is about 15 and she’s on the mission for a year in a half. She changes enough that the timeline is different and Tsunade makes Jiraya keep Naruto away for longer. 

TIMELINE:  
First contact with Akatsuki leads to Probation – sent on missions with established teams. They accept her because it would be useful to have a medic. She acts super uninterested, wary of them. Doesn’t really want to join them but has no other option. Acts reluctant which makes them believe her more. Can always use her as bait for Kyuubi if needed as well.

Sasori = Wins his attention after she cures herself of his poison when he ‘accidentally’ poisoned her. iArrow through the heart using a battle as cover and a fallout guy she killed before he could call her out. 

(Paired with Deidara)

(starts relationship with Itachi that’s half as cover so they can keep planning together, half real). Itachi is told by Sakura he needs to put more effort into the destruction of Akastuki instead of just information gathering as he as been doing; Hokage’s order. 

Hidan = Has been tasked with sewing him together all the time. She makes it painful though which makes him want to a) sacrifice her and b) have her teach him how to do that. Sews packet of poison in his body that she stole from Sasori wrapped in seal. He wants to sacrifice Sakura/likes the pain she can give him. No one suspicious when he disappears after Itachi hears the news. (Itachi uses black fire to ensure death)

Deidara = Waits until the are fighting an Iwa team and then she stabs him in the back with doton spike after he’s done enough damage to the area and killed 2 opponents. Makes it look like a big fight scene. Drags him back and breaks her own leg and ribs as well as giving herself signs of concussion. Literally collapses on the border with him and Ame ninja bring them in. In her ‘concussed state’ she calls Pein Naruto and tells him she misses him but is trying not to since he’s doomed (makes Pien trust her more).

Kakuzu = Asuma and Kumo team get him (Konoha and Kumo in the middle of hush hush peace talks). Sort of like a less organized Kage summit, Konoha is approaching other villages with info it’s getting on Akatsuki from Sakura. 

Itachi fills her in on ‘Madara’. They become proactive and destroy Zetsu with his black flames just before he does his suicide play with Sasuke. The suicide play was one he’d planned out because of his illness and the whole story line. Sakura is told by the Hokage to encourage it. They know Itachi is loyal to leaf but it’s a cut-throat world and bringing him back into the fold would be much harder than letting him die. To get Sakura, Sasuke, and Itachi back into Konoha and off scot-free would be much harder than one or two of them, So Tsunade ruthlessly tells Sakura to make sure not to heal him and to let Sasuke get his closure. Sakura acts distraught after his death and it bringers her closer to Kisame. 

Pein = flu or illness she ‘cured’ Konan of but kept infectious. He’s already pretty haggard at the end so I think a bad flu would put him down. She had suspicions he wasn’t the real person which Itachi helped her with. Knew Nagato had to be out there as Konan often disappeared. 

Konan = Contact poison, seen as grief. 

Last ones are Kisame and ‘Madara’. Kisame is easy. With Akatsuki splintered, she and Kisame take to wandering (though she thinks he’s still loyal to ‘madara’). She kills him in his sleep because he trusts her. Tracks down Sasuke and he says he hopes she didn’t follow him. She says she knows about the massacre and that she will always hate him for killing Itachi, but they are ultimately on the same side. She turns him against ‘Madara’ and lets Sasuke kill him with help from his team and Sakura. She had no idea who Obito is and Kakashi’s not there to make the dramatic reveal. They counter him out of surprise and because he has no back-up or ace-in-the-sleeve after Itachi’s tell-all. When Obito is dead Sakura seals Sasuke’s chakra messily (meaning he may never be able to access it again) and dumps his ass at a drop off point.

She’s supposed to meet a Konoha team with him to get brought in but a year and a half of all this fucked up betrayal has her twitchy and lost and she sort of just wanders into the woods and tries to find some sort of peace. Kakashi ends of tracking her down and bringing her home. Sakura semi-retires from shinobi life after this; she’s done more than her duty for Konoha and despite no Forth-Shinobi War, all the old leaders are handing their hats down and Naruto being Naruto is friends with many of them. Peace happens anyways. 

No one ever knows the full details of what she did, its all hidden under the idea she was simply an informant in Akatsuki. Even Naruto doesn’t know what Tsunade asked her to do (until the very end).


	11. Treasured

Sakura frowned at the small bundle sitting on the doorstep, huddled against the frame. It shivered and shuddered and she glanced at it, eyes narrowed. She returned her glance to the patrons sitting near her in the teahouse but none cared for anything outside of the warm lit building. The rain was nearly a sheet outside but Sakura’s eyes were sharp. 

Sakura raised her hand and flagged the waitress who scurried over with her bill. Sakura made sure to tip her well and the bubbly girl bowed deeply, smiling at Sakura as she insisted on giving Sakura her receipt. Sakura watched her scurry away and looked down at the bill with a number scribbled on the corner and a set of lip prints. She grinned and tucked it in her shirt before she reached for her umbrella.

She headed for the entrance and ducked under it, snapping open her umbrella as she stepped into the muddy street. She crossed the street, weaving between the carts and the people dashing out of the rain and headed for the stoop. If there was an abandoned puppy Kakashi would never forgive her if she left it.

When she reached the stoop she crouched down, umbrella resting on her shoulder. She reached out and nudged the cloth out of the way only to rear back in surprise.

“Well," she spoke aloud, “Definitely not a puppy.”

The small child mewled softly at the loss of warmth, face scrunching up as it cracked its rummy eyes open. It started to cry, soft muffled sniffling’s of a babe and Sakura quickly scooped it up, filthy blanket and all. It quieted in her hold as if surprised and she slid her arm out of her haori so she could pull the child under it to cradle against her. With her free hand she once again grabbed the umbrella and set off down the street.

.--.

The inn keeper had thrown a fit at the sight of the baby and Sakura may have lost her temper a tad. She promised herself to leave some extra cash to fix the cracked counter. She shed her wet coat on a hook and left her umbrella propped against the door. She looked at the baby in her arms and realized in the light of her room that it was filthy. It also did not look all that well. That might have explained something of the inn keeper screaming about disease. 

Sakura retreated to the small bathroom and filled the sink with lukewarm water. As she slowly unswaddled the child she wrinkled her nose at the smell and the filth and the scars. The child cried as she set it in the water, careful to keep its head above the water as she washed it off. She frowned even more as the scars dotting its body were further revealed. 

It was something similar to measles but with more scabbing and must have hurt like hell for the small infant. Her hands lit green as she slowly let her chakra slip into the infant. It was slow going simply because she was unfamiliar with the strain of virius and wanted to be careful. Healing infants was much harder than healing adults with built up immune systems and strength. 

By the time she had fully healed the small infant the water had gone cold but it had finally stopped crying. She supposed getting rid of the pain had helped. 

“Well, that should feel better,” she told the thing as she pulled it from the water and wrapped it in a towel. 

She tore an extra towel into strips and fashioned one as a diaper after she had dried it off. 

“Now,” she said laying the infant on the futon, “What to do with you?”

The infant gave a huff and seemed to fall asleep instantly, warm and clean and disease free. Sakura laid down beside it, half curled about it and drifted off to the sound of rain on the room and the soft breaths of the baby.

.--.

“You’re the ninja healer?" the man asked.

Sakura raised a brow.

“Yes. Do I not look like one?”

He glanced at her once, quickly, taking in the black kimono with rolled up sleeves and the mesh leggings and undershirt, the red haori. He took in her tall geta sandals and the band around her forehead, her hair pulled up in a high short ponytail. He even eyed the pouches of kunai and shuriken uneasily. 

“Yes, but I mean…”

He made a half-aborted wave to her back.

“Tomio is my companion,” she said blandly.

He stared at her for a long moment then simply shook his head.

“Follow me then.”

He led her away from the small teahouse and down the street amidst curious gazes. The small out of the way village was tiny, only visited for the fact it was at a set of crossroads. Sakura had been passing through but word of a travelling ninja had spread ahead of her easy pace and she had been contacted in the last village to see if she would take a mission for this man.

Sakura followed him up through the fields and out of the town until they stood before a house surrounded by fields and a small grove of trees. Sakura followed the man into the house at his wave and glanced about the modest sized manor. This was a man with influence apparently. Most likely village headman. 

Sakura slipped her geta off and silently followed the man down the hallway. It was eerily quiet in the house and Sakura’s ear caught the faint rasp of a cough as they stopped before a door. He slid the paper door open and slipped inside, already murmuring to the woman lying in the futon. Sakura followed and kneeled beside him as she clasped the woman’s hand. 

The woman was pale and shaky, eyes glazed with fever. Beside her lay a small girl, still curled against her mother. 

“Please. Whatever you can do for her,” the man said lowly, “The village doctor has given up hope.”

Sakura nodded and reached up to untie the sling around her back. She handed the small infant over to the man who grabbed the child, surprised at his new duty. 

“Get out,” she said not unkindly.

He cast her a suspicious worried glance but finally retreated, the babe in his arm. Sakura’s first action was tossing the futon cover to the side so she could see the seeping wound taking up the woman’s side. It was bleeding even through the bandage and Sakura could smell the infection. Sakura sighed and sliced the bandages away as she started to look at the wound.

It was the work of only a few hours to heal the woman’s side up and force the infection out. She could have been quicker but there was no reason to exhaust herself in a rush job. The child took even less time, suffering just a mild concussion. 

When Sakura slipped out of the room the man was sitting on the porch with Tomio, the babe still asleep. She plucked him from the man’s surprised arms and waved him away idly. He quickly headed for his wife and she claimed his seat, rocking the child as she looked out over the small village lit up by the setting sun.

She ended up staying the night, tucked in the second room, and spent most of the night only half asleep, listening to the man and woman whisper together in their own room, so happy she had survived. The next morning she insisted on giving Sakura all her daughter’s old clothes and swaddling including cloth diapers and some toys. 

Sakura thanked them, took her pay, and set out. She headed slightly off course from her final destination as she tracked some very obvious signs away from the village.

The wound on the woman’s side had been from a blade. A rusty one swung by someone who barely knew how to use it. And Sakura knew the signs of a bandit attack well enough. She strapped Tomio tighter to her back and started hunting.

.--.

Sakura sprang up in a tight coil, like a striking snake, blade going too fast for the naked eye to see as she slashed the man’s throat open. He was dead before he had even realized what happened. Sakura went spinning off in another attack, dodging an arrow. 

The bandits were quick, she’d give them that. She’d dropped in on their little fire in the dying day light and it had given her an edge of surprise but they’d recovered remarkably well for some small hill’s bandits. 

Sakura dodged another arrow, kicked a blade out of the way, and then crushed as man’s throat with her fist. The last two bandits left, the ones with bows, tried to retreat, firing arrows at her desperately now that there were no comrades to worry about hitting. Sakura went after them, bounding through the trees and shadows. Up ahead one tried to make a desperate retreat over a river’s edge, but Sakura’s kunai caught him in the eye and his body fell into the river. 

The last one blubbered something, made some sort of plea, but Sakura was no longer a girl of mercy. The war had stripped that out of her and she knew the things this man had done as a bandit. She ended his please with a kick to the had that shattered his skull. She wrinkled her nose and moved to the water to wash her hands and feet of the blood spray.

Tomio was sitting in the tree she’d left him in, swaddled and fast asleep despite the commotion and she smiled faintly at him before strapping him to her back.

.--.

“I need a room for the night,” Sakura said politely.

The civilian side-eyed her but accepted her money and slid her a key.

“Just the night?" he asked.

“Put me down for three nights,” she said, “I’ll let you know by tomorrow if it will be longer.”

“Yes ma’am. And if you could please make sure the child is silent in the evenings…” He trailed off, unsure if he wanted to put anything like an order towards her. 

“Tomio is a silent child,” she agreed, heading for the stairs.

She found her room easily enough and slid into the cramped space. At least the inn-keeper had been smart enough to give her one of the rooms with an attached bathroom. She eyed the single bed built half into the wall and the small window that she had the practically rip open. She supposed she couldn’t expect much from such a small traveler’s inn. 

The town she had found herself in sat at the very northern end of Fire Country, only prosperous because it connected a trade route from Hot Water country to Iron country. It was a medium sized city that relied on trade as much as farming and as such had a few inns and restaurants and other luxuries and not just the bare necessities of an isolated farming village. 

Sakura looked out the window, looking out over the fairly busy street and out over the fields. If she leaned out and craned to her left she could make out the walled manor at the center of the town that belonged to the minor Lord who ruled the area. She pulled back into the room and untied the now familiar sling, setting Tomio on the thin mattress. From her kunai pouch she pulled out a set of small cloth rings and set them before the child. Tomio bubbled happily and wrapped chubby fingers around the toy, immediately biting them.

Sakura was going to head for the washroom when a soft knocked echoed. Sakura only had to take two steps to get across the room and when she opened the door she came face to face with what looked like a servant girl in a faded blue yukata. She sketched a bow and offered Sakura a shy smile.

“Hello. I’m Akiko, the inn-keepers daughter-in-law. He said you may be interested in my services?”

Sakura raised a silent brow and the woman hurried on.

“I’m, um, I can offer my services as a wet-nurse.”

She flushed in the face of Sakura’s silence. 

“That would be helpful,” Sakura finally said, “He’s eating some solids as well but I’ve been using goat’s milk.”

“Oh! Um, is he not yours?" she said, flashing a glance to Sakura’s chest.

“My brothers,” Sakura lied, “The idiot got him and his wife killed so he fell to my care.”

The woman muttered her condolences and Sakura let her pick Tomio up.

“Would you be willing to watch him at times while I am here as well?”

“Oh, that should be no problem,” the girl brightened, “I’ll let my father know and he can just add it to your room bill.”

“Acceptable,” Sakura nodded, “Do you mind feeding him while I have a shower?”

“I’ll do it here.”

The girl started to loosen her yukata and Sakura slipped into the washroom to have a much needed shower. She slid her own kimono off her shoulders and winced at the crusted blood that wasn’t visible in the black material. Those bandits had certainly not died with dignity. Sakura was only grateful she was wearing black or she would have sent the inn into a tizzy if they had actually seen how much blood was splattered across her.

.--.

Sakura hummed as she bounced her steps so the child on her back was rocked into a lulling sleep. The men and women around her gave her a wide berth but barely a second glance too busy with their own lives. Sakura paused before a stand, looking at the wares before she gave a toss of her head and walked off. She explored the streets calmly and in no particular pattern, looking in windows and at wares. She blatantly ignored the tail that had been following her.

Sakura only paused as the day grew long and the sun started to vanish behind the hills. Many buildings had lanterns out so it was not without light. Sakura glanced back towards a two story building near her inn. The lights and music coming from it only grew as the sun vanished and Sakura quirked a smile. She wondered if Akiko would look after Tomio for the night.

.--.

“Oh, do it again mistress!” 

Sakura gave the girl an indulgent look and gave a brief hand sign. The sake in her glass rose up like a snake and did a few spins through the air before splashing into another man’s cup. The girls all gave squeals of appreciation. 

“Can all ninja do that?” One asked, eyes wide.

“It takes a lot of practice and a lot of control, so I would say the majority cannot,” Sakura smiled. 

“What else can you do?” Another asked, draping herself across Sakura’s shoulders.

Sakura gave it a brief moment of thought. Then she scooped both her arms under the girls beside her and stood up, each sitting on her biceps as she flexed her arms. The girls sealed in glee and Sakura flashed them all grins. 

“Oh alright girls, that’s enough bothering her,” The Mama said with an indulgent smile. 

The girls all gave whines but obeyed, slipping off either to their duties, or back to the men who had been watching silently from across the room. The music started up again a bit louder and Sakura flopped back into her seat. The two girls she had lifted cuddled into her side. 

“It must be very exciting,” the brunette sighed.

She was a pretty thing with short hair and a mass of freckles. 

“And so romantic,” the blonde said. 

She was more beautiful than pretty Sakura thought. With a slim curving figure and a flawless face with her straw blonde hair. Both wore some of the slinkiest outfits Sakura had ever seen. 

“A bit,” she agreed, amused by their dreams.

She wouldn’t burst their bubble by talking about the violence and the blood and the pain. Let them have their dreams. If any ninja came by they would be treated better by these girls if the girls thought them more like samurai. 

“I bet you have men and women throwing themselves at you,” The brunette piped in, “I bet you don’t need to visit any whore houses at home.”

“Where would the fun in that be?" the blonde demanded. 

“I wouldn’t say throwing, but I’ve had offers.”

“Whatcha doing all the way out her then?” blonde asked.

“Trying to get out of the way of a family spat,” Sakura sighed as if weary, “My brother and his wife got themselves killed in an internal conflict with my father and so I decided to give him some room to calm down.”

“I’m sorry,” Brunette said softly.

Sakura knew without a doubt anything she told them would be getting back to someone. Depending on who paid this brothel the most it could be either the Lord or the one who ran the crime around here. Or maybe both. Sakura really didn’t care. She just needed a good background story for no one to look twice at. She had taken care to make it look like she wasn’t heading anywhere in particular in her past few weeks of travels. She had stopped here and there, made a zig-zag route, taken out some bandits, healed some people, and generally just made it look as if she were wandering. No village symbol rested on her person either.

“Enough of such depressing thoughts,” blonde huffed, “She’s not here to feel sad.”

“Indeed I’m not. Do you have a solution for that?” Sakura asked.

Brunette threw her legs over Sakura’s lap and settled, pressing down. Sakura’s hands went for her hips and pulled her harder down. Blonde slipped behind her, breasts pressing into her back as she gently massaged her shoulders. Sakura ran her hands up Brunette’s side, breath hitching just the slightest as she cupped the heavy breasts. Brunette gave her a sly look and Sakura abandoned herself to the two women. 

.--.

Sakura took Tomio carefully, smiling at the infant and thanking Akiko as she retired to her room. It was actually morning but Sakura had no plans so she shut herself in. She played with the infant a moment, the babe burbling happily at her. 

“Who’s a good baby?" she chuckled as she nosed the infants stomach.

It spit at her, happily as she blew on it’s tummy. 

“Ma!”

Sakura paused.

“What did you call me?" she asked seriously.

“Ma!” It waved it’s arms, “Ma!”

“I …I suppose that’s true,” Sakura agreed. 

“Ma, ma, ma!” It giggled.

“Such a little charmer you are,” she laughed bouncing Tomio.

The small boy giggled and flailed and she spent the morning idly playing with him and going over some Intel. She also started to organize her receipts. Some she would turn in to get paid for when she returned to Konoha, some would come from her own account. She had perhaps taken a few more luxuries then she should on this trip. Trying to turn in files to get reimbursed for the brothel would not go over well, no matter if she tried to pass it off as Intel gathering. Oh well. Worth it.

.--.  
BLANK BIT

(NOTES: Sakura takes down some petty crime ring that had rooted itself in the trading town.)

.--.

“Hello Kotetsu, Izumo.”

Both guards screamed like children, flailing at the surprise.

“And that’s why you guys always get stuck with Gate Duty. You really need to work on your senses,” she said, giving them stern looks and trying to hide her satisfied smile.

“Or maybe people should stop sneaking up on us,” Kotestu growled.

“Well, we are ninja,” Izumo shrugged. 

“Could you just check me in please. It’s eleven oh eight,” she said looking at the clock hung in their little gate stand. 

They both nodded and looked up at her, getting their first good look since she had arrived. As one, they froze.

“Do I have to check myself in now as well?” she raised a brow.

“Ummmmm….anything to declare?” Izumo asked slowly, Kotestu seemingly frozen like a statue. 

“I guess you can put down Chiko.”

“Chiko?” They both echoed.

Sakura reached down to her feet and picked the puppy lingering there up by the scruff.

“Found him in the last town back and you know Kakashi would murder me if I left an abandoned puppy.” 

The puppy squirmed in her hold, trying to lick her hand even as he tried to escape. She set him back down with a scratch and made sure his leash was still on tight where it lead up to her wrist. 

“Anyways, I’ll see you guys later,” she waved a hand, turning towards the road.

There was some scrambled whispering behind her but they didn’t call her back so she made her way for the Hokage Tower.

.--.

Sakura gave a customary knock but did not wait for a reply before she slipped into the Hokage’s office. Tsunade was in her chair, facing the window, a scroll raised high against the light as she squinted at it as if trying to decipher a code. Considering Naruto was acting as her under-secretary and his writing was atrocious, she probably could read one word in four on the damned thing. 

“Well, that took you quite a while,” Tsunade grunted without looking at her.

“It was, all told, five months,” Sakura rolled her eyes, “You estimated about six, so I was actually quite quick going.”

“And you’re sure you rooted out all the bandits up North?”

“Yes. Plus their boss. Torched their main base just to make it neat and tidy.”

“Good,” Tsunade said, rolling up the scroll.

She still didn’t even look at Sakura as she turned for the next scroll. Sakura rolled her eyes. She’d bet money that Tsunade had had her sake taken away. It always put her in this kind of mood. 

“Any complications?” Tsunade asked.

“Not really. I have all my receipts for reimbursement though. Do you want those now?”

“Give them to the desk chunin, it’s a waste of my time. And don’t bother turning in any for the brothels. I’ve told them not to ever reimburse you for that again.”

Sakura smothered a grin and tossed the mission report she had finished this morning. She had another one for the desk chunin but Tsunade would want an overview. 

“Well, guess I’ll be off then,” Sakura said.

Tsunade released a gusty sigh and stood, scooping Sakura into a tight hug.

“It’s good to see you again kid. I’m glad you didn’t have any problems-”

She cut off and leaned back, pushing Sakura away by her shoulders. Sakura made a noise of disagreement not having even had a chance to return the hug. Tsunade stared at her blankly. Or more precisely, just to the left of her head. Sakura felt Tomio wave his hands in greeting.

“What is that?” Tsunade asked, surprise in her gaze.

“It’s a baby. A boy to be exact,” Sakura smiled, eyes crinkling. 

“Where did you find it?" she asked, still staring at the child.

“On a doorstep,” Sakura said vaguely.

She reached up and tugged Tomio out of the loose sling. He babbled happily and she rubbed their noses together before she held him out to Tsunade. She stared at the infant as if it were uncomprehend able. Tsunade only took him very carefully when Sakura made it apparent she wasn’t leaving before she did. Tomio stared solemnly up at Tsunade for a moment then reached up and patted her cheek.

“This is grandma,” Sakura cooed at him, “Grandma.”

“Grama!” Tomio repeated obediently.

Tsunade stared at the child with wide eyes, lips falling open.

“Grama!” He repeated, patting her cheeks again. 

Tsunade swallowed thickly and Sakura politely studied the wall as Tsunade’s eyes grew misty.

“How old is he?” Tsunade asked hoarsely. 

“As far as I can tell, just past the six month mark. I’ve been giving him a mix of solids and goats milk, though I employed a wet-nurse for a bit.”

“Have you gave him a thorough checkup?" she asked, fingers brushing across the scars on his neck. 

“Yeah. He had some strain of measles when I found him and it scarred a bit, but he’s okay.”

Tsunade stared at the kid who grinned a wide baby-grin at her.

“I’m probably gonna ask you to babysit every once in a while,” Sakura smiled.

“I’m a very busy person,” Tsunade said automatically.

“I’ll make sure to schedule in advance then,” Sakura said softly.

Tsunade helped her slip him back into the sling and wiped at her face with her sleeve.

“I’ll get some papers drawn up for him. Tomio you said?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a good name,” she said seriously.

“Thank you. Say bye-bye Tomio.”

“Bye!” He waved.

Sakura offered Tsunade another smile and the woman smiled back. Sakura left the office at a leisurely pace, picking Chiko up from the ANBU guard she’d left him with on the way out. 

.--.

“Kakashi!” Sakura called as she shut the gate behind her. 

There was a brief flare of chakra, Kakashi’s call sign that he had heard her and was home. At the same time a mass of eager dogs came barrelling around the corner.

“Sakura’s back!” They yipped, charging at her. 

Sakura had expected this and as such had Tomio still on her back and the new puppy tucked up under her arm. 

“I will pet you guys all later,” she assured them as they rubbed against her. 

They whined and wiggled but all seemed to realize she was serious as they headed off again, running about like puppies. Sakura smiled after them and headed for the front door. She slipped her sandals off in the entrance way and headed down the hall. 

The Hatake compound had once been a flourishing home with a clan, albeit a small clan but a clan of more than one. It was a large enough manor with an array of rooms done up with traditional paper walls and sliding doors. There was a porch that ran around the building and a small inner courtyard. 

When the war had ended, they had had an influx of refugees and immigrants, coupled with the destruction of many buildings had resulted in a housing shortage. Many clans had opened their doors to other ninja and Tsunade had personally kicked Kakashi from his apartment and told him to use his dusty old home. It wasn’t to be purposely cruel, sending Kakashi back to the house filled with old memories and his father’s ghost, but a necessity. Tsunade had told him if he fixed it up and sold it he could move back into an apartment.

So she and Naruto had met Kakashi at the gates on the first day and made sure he wasn’t alone for one minutes in that old house for the first month. They had cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, and then fixed some stuff, then cleaned more. Sakura’s pride and joy was the inner courtyard where she had taken over and made a beautiful blooming garden and pond (with the help of Yamato). During the month Naruto and Sakura had moved in as well, and then the Inuzuka had brought over all Kakashi’s dogs saying they had no room at the moment (Tsume gave Sakura sly smirk over the lie). Then some new dishes and furniture had found their place in the house. Then Yamato had claimed a room followed closely by Sai with the excuse that the ninja barracks were getting overcrowded. 

Only two months after moving in Kakashi had stopped mentioning selling the place at all. 

Now it was a clean homey manor with a pack of dogs running about at all hours and people coming and going. Sakura called the place home.

“Kakashi!” She called.

She could sense him somewhere in the courtyard and at the same time could sense no one else in the building. They weren’t afraid to leave Kakashi alone here anymore because it was no longer the Hatake compound, but theirs and with that came all their happy memories together. 

She headed for the courtyard and found Kakashi sitting lazily on the porch in a beam of sun.

“Mah, no need to keep yelling Sakura,” he eye smiled up at her.

“Well if someone would greet me after five months away I might not yell,” she snorted.

“Welcome back,” he said honestly.

“I brought you a new friend,” Sakura smiled, holding out Chiko.

Kakashi stood, eyes on the puppy as he took him. The puppy was already shaking his tail and trying to lick Kakashi before he had a hold on him. He was an excitable thing. 

“Where did you get him?” Kakashi frowned, looking in the pup’s mouth and at his ears.

“Found him on the side of the road an hour outside of a village. No idea how he got there,” Sakura shrugged, “If you don’t want him I know the Inuzuka will. He’s pretty smart for a puppy.”

“Well, I suppose we have room for one more,” Kakashi smiled, “Though we won’t for much longer if you all keep bringing me more puppies.”

“You want us to just leave them in the ditch next time?" she raised a brow. 

He narrowed his eyes at her and she laughed. 

“You have the time to train them,” she shrugged, “And none of us mind them.”

Kakashi had semi-retired after the war. She said ‘semi’ because this man wouldn’t stop until he was dead, but he did lower his workload. He only very rarely went on missions outside of the village now, and often only as a chaperone for younger less experienced teams. No more solo high ranked missions. He also spent more time hanging around the genin training fields to help kids out, even if he tried to deny it and say he just liked their reading spots better. The war had hurt them all and Kakashi had suffered physical wounds he would never fully recover from. But he, oddly enough, seemed happier for it. Maybe it had to do with the peace that was settling in, or the fact it had brought them all closer, or that they had all lived. All she knew was he was finally happy and she was very glad. 

Tomio chose that moment to clap her shoulders, bored of the sling.

“Ma!” He said.

“Oh hush you,” she chuckled.

She undid the sling and pulled the kid out, settling him on her hip so he could look around better. Kakashi stared.

“Ma!” Tomio pointed at him.

“No, that’s Kakashi,” she cooed, “Say Kakashi.

“Kashi!” he tried.

“Kakashi.”

“Kashi!”

“Good boy,” she laughed, nosing his cheek. 

He giggled and tried to catch her hair. 

“What?” Kakashi said dumbly.

“Want to hold him?” Sakura offered.

Kakashi set Chiko down gently and then took the boy, staring at him, then up at Sakura.

“You weren’t pregnant when you left,” he said slowly.

“He’s too old for me to have had him on the way anyways,” Sakura snorted, “I found him on a doorstep.”

“What are you going to do with him?” Kakashi asked.

“Well, raise him,” she shrugged. 

“That’s…. that’s a big decision,” he said slowly.

“Not really,” she said, “Besides, I made that decision months ago when I first picked him up. I would have passed him off long ago if I wasn’t going to keep him.”

Kakashi stared at her for another long moment then gave a thoughtful nod. He looked at the kid in his arms that was gnawing on his sleeve. 

“Well, he’ll be well loved. And no one can say he won’t be strong.”

Sakura smiled brilliantly at him. 

.--.

Naruto of course, true to his nature, freaked out. First he freaked out that Sakura had gotten married without letting them know. Then that she was dating someone behind their backs. Then then she was going to move out and away. Then that the child was his against all probability. Then he asked if Sakura had stolen him, where did he come from, where were his parents. 

She tried to explain it all but his yelling got in the way of her answers. Then, when she grew tired of his screaming she shoved Tomio in his hands and Naruto freaked out again that he was going to drop him or hurt him or somehow corrupt him. 

He didn’t really stop freaking out for about a week, but the moment Sakura tried to take Tomio back that first day, he pretty much revolted. Naruto proclaimed himself the best uncle and that Tomio would be one of his precious people.

Sakura rolled her eyes, but was pleased with Naruto’s acceptance, especially as it meant he would be a willing babysitter for a few years. 

Yamato on the other hand, stared at the child blankly for a long, long moment and refused to take him when Sakura offered him. Some excuse about just having been rolling in the dirt. He asked where Sakura had gotten him, if he was a relative. He asked if Tomio had been from the mission and it took Sakura a quiet spoken moment to put all his worries at ease.

Sai was the only person not to ask where Tomio had come from. He simply looked, staring at the child intently when Sakura introduced them. He stared and stared and stared as if trying to figure something out and Tomio returned the look, gnawing on his own hand as he watched. Sakura waited until Sai gave a slow nod. Then she held the toddler out to him and Sai looked at her blankly.

“Hold him,” Sakura sighed.

“There is a large chance I will not hold him correctly as I have never held a child,” Sai said blandly. 

Sakura rolled her eyes and shoved him so Sai had to grab the baby lest he drop him. He held Tomio awkwardly, hands under his arms so most of Tomio was dangling. Sakura raised a brow at him until he shifted his grip and pulled the kid closer. 

“Now, this is uncle Sai,” Sakura told Tomio, “Sai.”

“Sai!” he chirped, offering a baby grin.

“Good boy,” she cooed.

Sai stared like Tomio was the mystery of the universe. 

.--.  
Tomio was very content in his sling. He was a quiet, well behaved child who could be distracted with a new toy and rarely had any objections to being kept close all day. Sakura took him to the hospital nearly every shift, carrying him in his sling with toys and snacks tucked in her kunai pouches. She also got a pack of antibacterial wipes to carry around so she could wipe his hands and face when he got messy. Naruto had gotten her a few slings once he saw how boring her white one was and now she walked around with vivid colors and stripes. Yamato had been the smart one and gotten her a diaper bag that she stored in her locker at work. 

Despite all her friends saying he would be a handful, Tomio didn’t changed her schedule all that much. She still went to the hospital and training and she still got her rounds done. She only had to take a few five minute breaks every once in a while to change a diaper or feed him. She still took less breaks then the smokers. None of the nurses or doctors had been brave enough to tell her it was a bad idea to bring a kid to work like that even if she heard mutterings. It wasn’t like Sakura was stupid. When she had to work on an emergency, she’d hand him off to someone she knew in the building or summon the Slugs to watch him. But he went everywhere else with her. Most of her patients adored him. The elderly were always glad to hold him and coo while she did the check-ups and the ninja were even better because she would simply shove him in their arms. Either they had experience with kids and automatically relaxed and let her get to work while holding him, or they had no experience and were too afraid to drop or hurt him and stayed extra still. Either way he was good way to get the usually fussy ninja to comply. 

…..

.--.

The shinobi veered right, going for the little boy, obviously looking for a hostage. Anyone in the room could have told him that was a _bad idea_. Sakura was in his face in an instant, eyes nothing but murder and violence. Her hand was around his throat, forcing him back and into the ground just as his outstretched fingers brushed against Tomio’s hair. The resulting force behind the slam made the earth shatter and crack, as did the man’s spine. Sakura held him firm, fingers squeezing until he had no air as he clawed at her wrist weakly, the shock setting in.

“You made a mistake,” Sakura said, low and dangerous, and utterly calm, “Never touch my child.”

She clenched her fist until she collapsed his throat and then stepped back, watching him flounder and claw at his own neck unable to breathe. She watched until he turned blue and his eyes rolled back into his skull and his heart simply stopped beating. Then she slammed her heel on his chest just to be sure, crushing it into a pulp of bone and blood and flesh. 

“Momma,” Tomio called, lip wobbling.

“Oh, honey,” Sakura said, spinning to sweep the child up, “Momma’s sorry the bad man frightened you. Momma made sure he’ll never bother you again.”

She spun him around and kissed his brow and didn’t mind a bit that there was blood and bone clinging to her foot. 

.--.

“Why did you pick him up?” Kakashi asked finally.

“Would you have had me leave him?” Sakura asked as she ladled the soup.

“No, now of course, but what drove you to pick him up?” Kakashi asked. 

Sakura considered the question for a long moment.

“You know, when I was a girl, I wanted nothing more to marry a handsome dark-haired man, to live a blissful happy marriage. I imagined Sasuke as that man. All my fantasies were of holding his hand and having dinner waiting for him and being the perfect wife. Not once did I factor children in. Maybe I was too young to consider that aspect, maybe I just didn’t want to make room for anyone else in my dreams.”

There was the sound of Naruto making a ruckus outside, her son’s bright laughter along side his. Sai would be supervising silently from the veranda. In the kitchen Kakashi held out a bowl and Sakura filled it with miso soup as the rice cooker whistled. 

“But I let that dream go a long time ago,” Sakura said softly, “And I have found myself no lesser for it. I have not considered being married since. My mother would have said I just haven’t found the right man, my father said I would want to get married one day, that I’d change my mind. But the longer I carry on, the more I find myself complete just like this. I have a full house, a home with laughter and love, and I need no man in bed to complete that, no ring on my finger, or vows whispered.”

“We ninja often aren’t made for marriage,” Kakashi said idly.

Sakura looked at him, saw his slouched posture and thought of the way his house had been empty far longer than she had been alive. But she also thought of how peaceful he looked with their whole team crammed in his old ancestral home. 

“Maybe,” Sakura smiled, “As for Tomio, well, I think that was just impulse. He needed me and I knew in that moment I could be whatever he needed. It was not a really conscious decision. I knew in an instant we had room for a child in this house and that if I brought him in there might be small hurdles, but there would be no walls we could not knock down. Afterwards, when I had had him for a while and really sat down and thought it out, I realized I wouldn’t mind a child to call my own, to love. I had just hesitated at finding a man to give me one. But Tomio came without any bothersome men attached.”

Kakashi laughed, loud and clear and a moment later the boys poked their heads in to find out what was so funny.

“Breakfast,” Sakura smiled as Kakashi chuckled and scooped out the rice.

Tomio made his way to her and offered her a grubby dandelion.

“Thank you,” she smiled brightly.

He tucked it behind her ear and Sakura smiled, content and happy as she and her family sat down to eat together. 

.--.

Tomio announced when he was six that he would not be a shinobi like any of his uncles. He was gonna be a doctor like his momma. Naruto howled and cried and said Tomio had betrayed him and Tomio gave him the exact same exasperated looked as Sakura did. Tomio said boldly that he was gonna be the best doctor ever and he didn’t have the time to do shinobi missions.

Oddly enough people took this at face value and seemed to be under the belief that this meant he didn’t get any training in the shinobi arts.

The first kidnapper who got the idea to steal Haruno Sakura’s civilian child ended up with his ribs pulverized via tiny fist. Anyone who assumed Sakura wouldn’t be training him in chakra to be able to use medical jutsu was an idiot. The bigger idiots were those who assumed she wouldn’t teach him to defend himself. He had said he didn’t want to waste time on missions, not on training. 

“Mah, I said he would be strong at least,” Kakashi said cheerfully as Naruto gaped.

Sakura merely beamed at her child who may not have shared her blood but was hers wholly.

.--.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a one-shot of Sakura getting a kid. Sasuke is absent because i was going to have him die in the Fourth Shinobi war instead of some cope-out of him and Naruto losing their arms and then all was forgiven. He'd never really be mentioned but the places he was missing would spell out that he was both missed and not (I think he hurt Naruto and Sakura a lot and it should have been so much more complicated then all-forgiven and them getting married). Sakura is bi, asexual, gay, anything you want in this story. I made her kiss and appreciate pretty girls but it cloud have just been anything you want. Her not wanting to be married can be seen any way too (realized she was gay, poly with everyone in the house, or just doesn't want to get married which is valid). 
> 
> Tomio means Treasured Child if i remember right.


End file.
